The Days in February
by Cappucinno
Summary: AU. Modern. Zelink. As Zelda Harkinian stalked off down the sidewalk with murderous intentions, she had no idea that her life had just been forever changed.
1. Chocolate and a Coffee Mug

**Disclaimer:** I do not and never will own the characters of The Legend of Zelda. Nor will I ever own Nintendo. Damn it.

* * *

**THE DAYS IN FEBRUARY  
**by Cappucinno

* * *

**o1. Chocolate**

The day that she met him was nothing special.

There was nothing extraordinary about it. It was just Monday, a typical Monday, February 1st, no different from any other February 1st. The day had been dreadfully normal for Zelda Harkinian. She had just gotten a new job the week before so most everything had settled into a nice, normal, dull routine. Wake up, walk to the office, make some copies, staple some papers, take a few calls, make a few coffee runs, walk home.

There were no life-changing thoughts on her mind when she decided to make a left instead of a right at the crosswalk on her walk home. She hardly glanced up at the cheery little sign that read 'Beyond Bizarre Bakery' and she could only vaguely recall stepping into the strange place that claimed to sell 'the best' cinnamon rolls.

In fact, she was hardly paying attention when she stepped up to the counter, absentmindedly reaching for her wallet as she ordered a supposed 'best' cinnamon roll. Nothing special, just a normal cinnamon roll, no frosting. So busy not paying attention was she that she actually _jumped_ when she heard someone laughing in the back room.

Her azure blue eyes fastened upon the door in the far back corner of the service area and only then did she realize that no one was there to take her order. She felt a familiar swell of impatience as she heard that laugh again. What right did the employees have to be enjoying themselves when they had an unserviced customer?

Zelda waited, stiletto clad foot tapping impatiently against the wooden floors.

For a second it sounded like there were footsteps behind the door, and then nothing. And then more laughter. Exasperated, the young woman threw her hands up in the air, more than annoyed.

"Hello?" She called, not bothering to hide the irritation in her voice. "Do you want my money or not?"

"Hey, is that a customer?"

"Uh, dude, she sounds pissed." An indistinct voice, likely a surfer from SoCal if that lazy drawl was anything to attest to.

"Shit, who's supposed to be working right now?" Another indistinct voice, but this one had an unusually boyish intonation despite the lower tones and velvet-smooth delivery. Young adult, maybe a college student?

"Dude, I dunno… check the charts." There was the sound of rustling paper, and then a stream of curses. Zelda was standing by her initial analysis of college student. After all, what self-respecting adult would cuss like a sailor?

"What, dude?"

"Fuck, man._ I'm_ supposed to be working." There was a chorus of laughter—were there more than two people back there?

"Well, get your ass out there Link."

Jeers and a round of similar commentary.

"Not cool, who switched my shifts?" Defensive.

Honestly, Zelda didn't really care _who_ was on shift, but the original snack break she'd come in for was fast turning into a negative mark on her otherwise normal day; which immediately made it a bad day.

There was more indistinct chattering from the back room and finally someone stumbled out the door. More like fell out actually.

"Wha—? Hey man, not cool! Not cool, ffff—" Link turned and Zelda offered up an impatient smile that couldn't remotely pass for polite. "Hey there little lady, how can I help you today?"

"Excuse me?" If looks could kill, Link would probably be checking into the gates of limbo. "You have the _nerve_ to make me wait for," She paused, glancing at her watch. "Two minutes and three seconds, and then you _insult _me? Who do you think you are?"

"What's that, miss? A chocolate chip cookie?" His grin was wide and Zelda was suddenly struck with the urge to slap it right off his face. The voice that she'd pegged for a college student was that of a young man approximately her age, maybe a little older. "Coming right up."

"Look _dipshit—"_ She seethed.

"Ooh, looks like somebody's got a little temper problem." He waggled his finger at her disapprovingly, be-damned gorgeous blue eyes sparkling with mirth. "That'll be fifty cents."

He was already fishing the money out of the tip jar, a grin painted on his face as he shoved the pre-packaged treat into her purse, happily producing a receipt and tucking it into her clenched fist.

His hand was warm on her back, not that she was paying attention, as he guided her towards the door. Before Zelda could turn back to give the man a piece of her mind, the door was all but slammed on her face.

"Thank you, come again!"

Zelda managed to hear through the layer of glass that separated her from the cashier, her mouth hanging open in shock at the shut door. It took her a second to regain her composure and only then did she realize that the rude cashier's face was pressed up against the glass, his hand waving her cheerily off.

Beyond Bizarre indeed. As Zelda Harkinian stalked off down the sidewalk with murderous intentions, she had no idea that her life had just been forever changed.

* * *

**o2. Coffee mug**

"You came _back_?"

Zelda's expression was smug as she leaned casually against the counter, a self-satisfied smirk on her face as she watched the blood drain from the cashier's face. The coffee mug that he was supposed to be ringing up sat innocently between them, untouched. She noted with no small pleasure, that he was slack jawed.

"What, 'come again' wasn't an invitation?" She quirked a brow at him as she watched his mouth and then shut again. Oh yes, she was smug.

"I-you… but…" Link trailed off uncertainly, scratching at the back of his head, looking anywhere but at the vindictive young woman standing directly across from him.

"Can I speak to the manager?"

Zelda's smile was sugary sweet and she relished in the way that Link's shoulders seemed to sag. There was a pause and then the blonde sighed theatrically.

Zelda beamed.

"Is there a problem, miss?" The blonde haired woman sent another wicked glance at the cashier who was innocently twiddling his thumbs, a wide smirk curving at her lips.

"Yes, in fact, there is." Zelda said coolly, folding her arms as she turned to face the reed-thin manager. "I believe that this employee needs to be replaced."

"I see." The man nodded once but said nothing else, expression unreadable.

"…So, are you going to do anything about it?" Zelda was a bit ashamed to say that she felt like a five year old going to tell the teacher something a fellow student had done. Even now she could hear their high-pitched voices in her mind.

_"Tattle tale, tattle tale, tattle tale…"_

"Well, miss. I'd love to but," The serious looking man's expression didn't change and he pushed his glasses back up onto the bridge of his nose. That in itself was a bad sign. Her heart sank. "I'm afraid I'm in no position to fire the owner. You see, there's a minor technicality in that I'd be out of a job if that happened..."

"What?" Zelda turned, horror-stricken, to face the cashier. The blonde looked abruptly up from his thumb-twiddling to fix her with a grin so wide that she forgot how to breathe for a second. Zelda could only watch with an impending sense of doom as he lifted a hand and waved pleasantly at her, looking rather wolfish as he did so.

"Link Sonoma, at your service. It's been a pleasure meeting you, Miss Harkinian."

She didn't even comprehend his hand closing firmly around hers in a shake that sealed her fate, or the feeling of paper being tucked into her palm. She didn't even realize that he already seemed to know her name though she'd never introduced herself.

All she could process was that damned grin of his and his lips forming a single silent syllable as she stared at him in a mixture of disbelief and disdain.

'Gotcha.'

At least for all of her troubles Link suddenly decided that the coffee mug was free. She hadn't been paying attention to it, but as she walked home she turned the porcelain mug over in her hands absently running a finger over the design.

She traced over two sloppily drawn stick figures, presumably a girl and a boy, though it was quite impossible to tell, and stopped in the middle of the sidewalk. Over their heads was a single heart, airbrushed a baby pink.

'I love you, baby.' Was scrawled underneath.

She'd nearly forgotten that Valentine's Day was in February. Leave it to a no-good, trouble-making, idiot of a restaurant owner to remind her of that.

What kind of name was Beyond Bizarre Bakery anyways?

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**A/N**: This is just a fluffy little side-project of mine that I've been working on for a while now. It will feature approximately fourteen to fifteen short chapters, each containing two-three days, eventually ending at twenty-nine days. I'm currently working on day eleven, so you can expect almost weeky updates. Suprise, surprise, I'm actually ahead on this one! As always, reviews are much loved and very appreciated. Enjoy.

-Cappucinno


	2. iPods and Umbrellas

**Disclaimer:** I do not and never will own the characters of The Legend of Zelda. Nor will I ever own Nintendo. Damn it.

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**THE DAYS IN FEBRUARY  
**by Cappucinno

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**o3. iPod**

Zelda had no intentions of returning to Beyond Bizarre after her rather embarrassing episode with the manager and the idiot of an owner. However, sometimes life leaves you no choice but to follow the predetermined lines of fate. And that was how Zelda, her boss, and her boss's boss happened to end up seated at a booth at that exact place.

The blonde attempted to distance herself from the whole situation, blocking out the friendly banter that bounced between her employers and that damnable reed-thin manager with the annoying glasses. And besides that, though she never once looked up from her menu, she could very well feel the force of _his_ stare on the back of her head.

God, why did her employers have to choose such a miserable place as their absolute favorite restaurant? The name was weird and the staff was decidedly incompetent. And the chocolate chip cookies had been stale.

_Stale._

And how did they manage to mess cookies up anyways? Zelda scowled down at the menu, grating her teeth together as that familiar laugh filled the background. Pleasant laughter, a little rough, a little boyish, a little too honest. Not that she was paying attention.

Of course not.

As the conversation took a turn for dull Zelda glumly picked at the bread rolls they had been supplied with, making a point not to eat it. She was quite oblivious to the curious looks from her bosses and the disappointed expression on a certain blonde's face as she sullenly pushed the shreds of bread around her plate.

"You're not eating?" The voice was entirely too close to her and she could damn well feel the puff of hot air over the back of her neck. Zelda jumped a mile and jerked around, wide azure eyes landing upon a pair of royal blue ones.

Her breath stopped as a tuft of sun-bleached blonde hair fell into those eyes, head cocked in question. As if belatedly realizing how close the man was to her, Zelda turned her head and cleared her throat uncomfortably.

"It's not poisonous, I promise."

Before she could even think about what was happening there were fingers pushing against her lips and she opened her mouth unthinkingly. She found herself chewing thoughtfully on a piece of rosemary bread that melted against her palate, the butter melding perfectly into the flaky spiced bread.

"Mmmm…"

Link's smile was broad as he leaned over the back of her chair, chin nearly resting on Zelda's shoulder as she drifted off into the land of food-induced bliss. Clearly not a man expecting rejection.

"Well, at least I hope it's not poisonous…" Link commented in an offhanded manner, one finger tapping thoughtfully against his lips as he 'hmmed' to himself.

"Shut up, you're ruining the bread."

The blonde stopped, blue eyes widening a fraction before settling back and a genuine smile lit up the contours of his face. He was quite handsome, actually. His face could have come right off a statue of some ancient god and from what she could tell he was toned. Very toned. His hair was a mass of unkempt and subtly wavy blonde hair, the occasional platinum streak attesting to the amount of time that he spent in the sun.

"Mmm, God." Zelda managed around a mouthful of heavenly bread. "What is this? Dear Sweet Godesses, I think I've died and gone to heaven. Who makes this?"

Link smiled in a self-satisfied manner, lips imitating Zelda's trademark expression. He remained wisely silent, as requested, and pulled a black iPod from his pocket, clapping his bulky headphones over Zelda's ears. Immediately the sound of music filled her ears as she tore another chunk of buttery bread off and let it dissolve in her mouth.

"Kokomo? The Beach Boys?"

She turned back over her shoulder fixing the blonde with an incredulous look and Link shrugged in an innocent manner. She gave him another look which clearly said, "Strange child," before turning back around and proceeding to devour the rest of her bread-from-heaven.

If he wasn't talking to her then at least he couldn't ruin the delectable rosemary rolls or further piss her off. She was in no mood to pitch a fit with her employers so close at hand. Not that she was really focusing on them much anymore, seeing as she was unresponsive to the subject of their conversation.

"Does she know him, you think?" Zelda's boss, Nabooru, asked with one eyebrow raised in a gesture of curiousity.

"Hm. Maybe we can get a discount?" Sheik, the Vice President of Din Inc. asked thoughtfully.

"Tch. We better." Nabooru scoffed. "He sure as hell doesn't feed _me_ like that."

* * *

And with the music playing in her ears she couldn't hear Link's happy bragging in the background.

"I win, pay up."

"What? No way." The SoCal surfer, dubbed Shane, drawled in his usual lazy manner.

"Come on. Cough up the mullah."

"Dude, you don't even know if she's hooked for reals."

"Fine. Don't pay me today. Pay me double tomorrow, for when she comes back."

* * *

**o4. Umbrella**

Zelda didn't look up to see his horribly self-satisfied grin. It had been bad enough to imagine it all day as she'd stapled packet after packet of paper together, and she certainly didn't need to see it again. In fact, if she saw it one more time, Zelda Harkinian would probably go insane.

"Two rosemary rolls." Zelda said, digging out her wallet, dutifully avoiding eye contact.

"For here or to go?" Strangely enough the voice was free of its usual teasing and Zelda actually had to look up in shock. A calm face greeted her, carefully devoid of all emotions but the polite smile that curved at his lips.

"Umm. To go." Zelda said, still quite shocked by this anomaly.

"That'll be 3.50, Miss Harkinian."

Zelda raised a brow as she surrendered the money to the blonde, quite disturbed by his lack of bothersome comments. He knew who she was, so that clearly wasn't it.

"Link?" The blonde looked up, cocking an eyebrow at her.

Yes, it was Link. And he certainly didn't look like he'd been abducted by aliens. Zelda frowned as she leaned forward suddenly, looking for all the world like she was actually worried about him.

"Are you sick?"

Link blinked curiously at her and shook his head slowly as if he were communicating with someone with a very unstable mental condition. He spoke in a very similar fashion.

"No…"

The blonde suddenly frowned and planted her hands firmly on her hips, hardly blinking as the heavenly bread was deposited on the counter in front of her in tasteful brown wrap. Wait, that was just a paper bag. Never mind.

It just _deserved_ tasteful brown wrap.

"Then what the hell is wrong with you?" Zelda finally spat out, and at that Link had to laugh.

"Zelda Harkinian. You walk into my shop dripping wet looking like a drowned kitten in stilettos, and I know for a fact that this is out of your way, it's pouring outside and you don't have an umbrella. All for two pieces of bread. Do I really need to say anything?"

Zelda grudgingly admitted that no, he didn't, and she left Beyond Bizarre Bakery with those two pieces of well earned rosemary-rolls-from-heaven.

Link watched her leave with the distinctly satisfied air of someone who had just won the lottery.

"Yo, Shane?" He called.

"Fine. You win." And the poor surfer had no choice but to fish out his wallet and tuck a twenty into his boss' waiting hand.

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**A/N:** Just another quick, short, to the point updates. Still stuck writing on Day 11 eleven though, so be prepared for a dramatic slow down come Chapter 5. Thanks, as always, to my lovely reviewers– you make my day.

reviewpuh-leaseIluffyewguys?

-Cappucinno


	3. Purses and Conclusions

**Disclaimer:** I do not and never will own the characters of The Legend of Zelda. Nor will I ever own Nintendo. Damn it.

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**THE DAYS IN FEBRUARY  
**by Cappucinno

* * *

**o5. Purses**

On the fifth day Zelda was proud to say that she didn't return to Beyond Bizarre Bakery. She got off of work, called her good friend Malon, and walked to the mall. It was a rather crowded place, three stories tall, and so big that Zelda had seen both a Target and a Walmart. _Inside the mall. _

With an aggravated sigh the blonde pulled out her phone and punched in Malon's well-memorized number, idly stopping to look at a jewelry display as the phone rang.

"Zelda?"

"Hey, Malon. Where _are _you exactly?" Zelda asked, eyeing a ruby locket.

Too expensive. Too bad.

"Oh, I thought we were meeting at the Hallmark store."

"Hallmark?" Zelda stopped, frowning as she straightened up. "We have a Hallmark here?"

There was a pause on the other line and then an embarrassed laugh. "Oh, sorry, my bad. It's Papyrus. Never mind. Meet you at Williams Sonoma?"

"Okay, darling."

Zelda shook her head as she clicked her phone shut and tucked it away into her white coat. She was only a level up and a mall block away from Williams Sonoma, so it wouldn't take her long.

She began her trek, absentmindedly pausing to window shop in a few stores that she'd never be able to afford. She had hardly made it two steps past the Coach store when an all too familiar voice stopped her cold.

"This one, sir?" The clerk asked a certain blonde someone.

"Hey, Zelda, this one right?" He asked, with a wide grin as he gestured to the red leather purse that she'd eyeballing from the window.

Zelda felt her heart skip a beat as she stared at the blonde. Gawked was probably a more accurate word. Her azure eyes widened and there was a hint of her usual scowl rapidly forming, her jaw hanging open in an unattractive manner.

"Yep. This one." Link said to the clerk, passing over his credit card as if the thing didn't cost him 500. With his usual air of casual nonchalance he pushed the Coach purse into Zelda's arms and she obediently grasped it.

It took her a moment to get a hold of herself, helped along by Link's patient staring, before her temper snapped again. In a voice that was decidedly unsuited for the indoors, Zelda Harkinian _shrieked. _

"HOLY FUCK! STOP STALKING ME!" She was rational enough to punch him as he burst into a fit of what he would later insist were manly giggles, which cued another burst of punches from Zelda. "What the hell is WRONG with you? You're a… you're a _creep_!"

"Zelda, princess, really? Is that how you thank a guy for buying you a new purse?" The blonde countered, casually wrapping an arm around the hysterical blonde.

"Don't touch me! Jesus Christ, stay away from me!" She paused, shooting him a suddenly defensive glower. "And I didn't need a new purse, thanks for asking!"

"Zelda?" The blonde snapped her head around at the familiar voice and she turned to see a perplexed Malon standing there. The redhead cocked her head at the scene in an appraising manner. "You know Link?"

Zelda would've been happier if the sky decided to spontaneously fall and crush every living inhabitant on earth whilst beaching all of the sea critters. Better that than Malon being _friends_ with the current bane of her existence.

Nevertheless, she was forced to endure the remainder of the afternoon with an overly-interested Link Sonoma and a particularly devious looking Malon Lon. She would later deny any accounts of people who claimed that they had seen her laughing and having a good time. She would also _vehemently_ deny that she had been ogling one Link Sonoma's very fine ass.

* * *

**o6. Conclusions**

Link was honestly a little bit worried when six o'clock rolled around and his favorite customer was still mysteriously absent. The blonde fidgeted in a decidedly uncharacteristic manner, waiting patiently at the cash-register for the blonde to appear. He was sporting a rather nasty black eye, not that he could really remember what he'd done to deserve it. He'd only just awoken to find a thoroughly upset Zelda Harkinian beneath him and unfortunately he couldn't even remember how they'd wound up like that.

He'd been hopeful for about five seconds before he heard her sigh of relief, following by an, "Oh, thank God!" And then he'd had an elbow slammed into his face.

Apparently Zelda Harkinian wouldn't lower herself to striking a sleeping man, though she had no problems about beating a hung-over and decidedly half-awake one. Some morning that had been. She hadn't stopped complaining all morning whilst she forced him to cover his torso with a towel as she waited for his shirt to dry.

Apparently she had issues with his chest.

There was something about torture that she kept mumbling about, but Link was pretty certain he hadn't tried to pull anything on the young woman. Hell, all he could remember was waking up on top of her.

Which would've been a great thing under any other circumstances.

He wasn't sure who had dumped him off at the moody-but-decidedly-sexy blonde's apartment when they'd failed to find the keys to his and Malon's apartment, but he made a mental note to kick their asses later.

When Zelda walked in, finally, Link was instantly relieved. Because the little spitfire of blonde that he'd grown so fond of actually came back. Even if she was looking even moodier than usual and glowering at him as she crossed her arms and ordered a roll of rosemary bread.

In fact, Link was _so _relieved that he didn't even feel the need to tease her or piss her off. Or maybe that was just the guilt talking. As they exchanged the bread and money respectively Zelda stood there, still glowering in that not-so-cute manner that she always did.

"You're bruised." She said in a monotone that Link didn't even mind.

"Yeah."

He knew he looked like an idiot, standing there grinning, but he couldn't bring himself to care. Zelda had come back. This Monday marked the second week he would spend staring desperately at the clock, waiting for her to come in.

"I'm not sorry." She said, lips pursed and eyebrows drawn into a furrow, even as the tiniest hint of pink crossed her cheeks. A very guilty blush. There was a tentative silence and then she actually managed to meet his gaze.

Her cheeks turned a bright flaming red. That was a curious new development.

"…What were you doing at the mall with Malon, anyways?" Zelda asked, and it was Link's turn to look guilty, though he wasn't blushing. Because guys didn't blush. And he certainly wasn't about to admit that he'd known full well he'd see Zelda at the mall when he offered to give his roommate a lift.

"Umm," He scratched the back of his head, not quite bringing himself to meet Zelda's suddenly forceful glare. Sexy, but scary as hell. "Well, we're kind of roommates so…"

When Zelda turned on her heel and marched off without waiting for an explanation Link could only after her in a distressed manner. He'd completely forgotten what people tended to conclude when a guy and a girl were living in the same apartment. Damn it.

Maybe she wasn't going to come back again after all.

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**A/N**: Another update. Two more to go until we have to go back to the waiting game. Still stuck on Day 11. Hope you guys are all enjoying this and, as always, many thanks and much love to my loyal reviewers. Your support is always appreciated.

-Cappucinno


	4. Italian Food

**Disclaimer:** I do not and never will own the characters of The Legend of Zelda. Nor will I ever own Nintendo. Damn it.

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**THE DAYS IN FEBRUARY  
**by Cappucinno

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**o7. Italian food**

Zelda had seen it coming. There was no way that it could be avoided, seeing as they lived in the same apartment complex. Still, to knock on Malon's apartment door bringing the Italian take-out she asked for and seeing Link at the door… it was a little much.

"Zelda?" The surprise on his face was obvious, blue-eyes going wide as he stood in the entryway. Zelda was doing little better, staring up at the man with her jaw hanging a little looser than usual.

"Oh," Link smacked himself in the head and took a step back to let her in, casually turning back over his shoulder. "Hey, Malon! Zelda is here!"

"Zelda?" Before Zelda could even fully register that yes, that was a shirtless Link answering the door, she was greeted by her blonde friend in an immediate hug. She returned the hug tentatively, pointing awkwardly at the blonde.

"Umm, he—" Malon rolled her eyes and waved Link off.

"Yeah, I know. He has this bad habit of being devastatingly gorgeous." Malon sighed and turned to her roommate. "Get a shirt on."

"Shirt. Right." Link made an about-face, moving mechanically towards his room and Zelda breathed a sigh of relief as his god-like body disappeared.

"Thank, Malon." She breathed, immediately freezing at the devious look on her friend's face. Her cheeks made a rapid turn for crimson as she stared up at her friend, trying and failing to look innocent. "_What?_"

A slow grin crept over Malon's face, one that Zelda didn't like in the least.

"You liiiike him," Malon chorused in a sing-song matter. "Ooh, Zelda, you liiike him…"

"I do _not._" The blonde rolled her eyes as she set the food down on the table, turning to attempt to silence her friend's mindless chanting of 'You liiiike him…' with a Class-A glare. "Malon, shut up. I do _not_ like—"

"What don't you like?" There was Link, looking innocent as ever with a black button shit on that was looking decidedly _unbuttoned_. Oh god.

"I-I…" Link raised a brow curiously as the blonde developed a sudden stutter. "Umm. I… you…"

"Link." Malon sent him an annoyed glance. "Shirt. Button. Now."

Link sighed in a melodramatic manner before complying with the order and buttoning up his shirt in a nonplussed manner. Zelda would even go so far as to say he looked _pouty_.

But at least she was suddenly able to breathe again.

"Really, Malon." The man complained as he served up the spaghetti. "You ruin all of my fun."

"Link, your body is _lethal_. It should be illegal." Zelda stared at her friend in a rather scandalized manner, not quite believing that this was the same sweet innocent Malon that she'd gone to high school with. Malon shrugged. "What? You know it's true, Zelda."

"What? It is _not._" The blonde huffed indignantly, going stock-still as a muscular arm slid over her shoulders and Link's breath fanned over her neck.

"So, if I _just…_" Link began suggestively, an amused smirk curling at his lips as he deftly undid the top buttons of his shirt. Zelda's face turned crimson and he pretended not to notice her obvious distress. "Hmm. Well, it's certainly nice to see a girl who doesn't gawk over me," He mused. "But I must be losing my touch."

"Uh-huh." Zelda swallowed nervously, sitting on her hands to prevent them from roaming all over the blonde's chest. She managed to regain some semblance of self-control and she elbowed the blonde off her, stubbornly refusing to look at him. "Yeah, don't touch me."

Malon merely looked amused and began to lay down the beginnings of her devious plan. "So, are you guys busy at all tomorrow? Zelda, I know you have absolutely no life, but Link?"

"Well, Veronica was going to come over, since you'll be out with Shane, but she's still all clingy and whiny from the whole one-night stand deal. So, no." The blonde mused, as he and Malon both exchanged a glance. "What's up?"

"Well, I was thinking that we'd all run down to the movie theater and then go out for a bite to eat." Malon suggested, though the way in which it was presented made it sound suspiciously like there was no choice but to accept.

"I'm game." Link said, raising an eyebrow at Zelda who sighed and grudgingly nodded her assent.

"So Link, does Zelda have your number? Because my cell phone is dead and my charger is god-knows-where, and well…"

* * *

**A/N: **Unfortunately this chapter is both shorter than the others and took a horrendously long time to put up. I apologize of rthe inconsistency, but school just started back up about a month ago, so I'm still trying to keep my head above water. To make up for this I'll write in a few three-day chapters in the near future, expect another update from me within the next month, okay guys?

Your reviews are my inspiration,

Cappucinno


	5. Cold

**Disclaimer:** I do not and never will own the characters of The Legend of Zelda. Nor will I ever own Nintendo. Damn it.

* * *

**THE DAYS IN FEBRUARY  
**by Cappucinno

**

* * *

**

o8. Cold

"One more time." Zelda requested, drawing a sigh from her sinfully handsome tablemate.

Link was leaning his cheek against his fist, staring at the blonde woman across from him. She, in turn, was still staring at him in a slack-jawed expression of disbelief. There was a single lock of blonde hair that had apparently either refused to go back into her updo or along with the pieces of hair framing her face and was hanging distractingly over the bridge of her nose.

It had been bothering him for the last ten minutes.

It was just sitting there.

Innocently.

As if it wasn't aware that it was obstructing his otherwise perfect view of the blonde woman who sat directly across from him at the romantically lit booth. The restaurant was, apparently, practicing for Valentine's Day and had declared them to be a 'lovely young couple'.

"She got lost parking the car, tripped over a daisy, supposedly twisted her ankle, was taken off by some pre-med guy named Sheik, and I haven't heard from her since." Link explained patiently, for the fourth time.

"Why doesn't that sound any better the fourth time around?" Zelda sighed, rubbing her temples as if to ward away the impending headache. Honestly, fifteen minutes with Link and she already needed some aspirin.

Or strong alcohol.

Too bad that really wasn't an option when she was around Link. Goddesses damn her baby-hungry ovaries or whatever the hell was responsible for her reaction the dizzying amount of pheromones that seemed to surround Link.

"Would you like me to repeat it again?" Link offered, staring at some random point on Zelda's face.

Zelda sighed and rolled her eyes. Some guys stared at her breasts. Other guys at her legs, ass, or what-have-you, and the occasional guy liked to stare at her face.

Link had to be the first guy to stare compulsively at the point just left of the bridge of her nose about a half an inch away from the corner of her eye.

"I don't think hearing it a fifth time is going to help anything." Zelda deadpanned and Link shrugged in a complacent manner.

"Just offering—"

"Goddesses, Link! Would you _please_ stop unbuttoning your shirt?" The blonde suddenly hissed, shielding her eyes and staring pointedly at her plate.

"Well, _that_ has to be a first," Link commented offhandedly, staring at the blonde in a perfectly amused manner. "You know, princess, the _typical_ response is to just rip it off."

Zelda groaned, smacking her forehead with her palm, to Link's infinite amusement. The blonde managed to look up at her dining companion whose bedamned cobalt blue eyes were fucking _sparkling_ with mirth.

Her gaze dropped infinitesimally and she shielded her eyes once more as they landed upon the first two undone buttons on the blonde's gray button-down shirt.

"_Link!_" She managed in a voice about an octave higher than usual, her cheeks flushing a bright crimson as said male laughed heartily. "Buttons! Now!"

"Okay, okay." Link said, still laughing as he buttoned his shirt back up. "It's a subconscious thing you know." He explained. "I grew up where it was always really hot—"

"Can we please _not_ talk about hot things right now?" Zelda said rather desperately as she pressed her water glass to her frighteningly red cheeks. "Cold. Frigid. Snowy."

"What?" Link asked, raising a brow. "Are we talking you now? You know, I think you need to get laid because most virgins have this—hey!"

The blonde yelped and scooted back an inch on the booth, one hand digging desperately through his shirt in search of the soggy crouton that Zelda had flung at him. He shot the young woman an amused yet annoyed look as he finally fished the projectile out, holding the Caesar-soaked cube of bread between his index finger and his thumb.

"Now _that_, was not very kind." He chastised, eliciting an immature eye-roll from the blonde across from him. "You know, there's this thing called karma..."

Zelda sighed and fished another crouton out of her salad, flinging it at Link mid-sentence. The blonde stopped dead, cobalt blue eyes blinking in a stunned manner. After a moment the shocked young man picked up the offending crouton, shaking his head at Zelda with an unusually serious expression on his face.

"That is _it_," He began, and Zelda blanched. "It's on, blondie!"

"Hey! I didn't throw a _meatball_ at you!" Zelda cried in protest she wiped at the marinara-stain on her white blouse in a frantic manner. When the stain remained stubbornly visible she scowled and threw her napkin at Link.

"What, that's all you've got?" He taunted, before breaking off mid-sentence with a _manly_ shriek. "Shit! I _hate_ anchovies!"

"And now you'll smell like fish." Zelda said smugly, crossing her arms in a self-satisfied manner and basking in her temporary victory.

In response Link merely stopped again, looking at her with an appraising look. He was, apparently, back to staring at that random spot of her face that made her feel oddly like maybe Malon had scribbled on her with sharpie again when she'd fallen asleep at their apartment the night before.

With an unnecessarily vicious motion Link deftly began unbuttoning his shirt, rousing a cry of protest from Zelda. "Hot. Steamy. Latte. Tropics. Sensual. _Friction_." He began ticking off, the first three buttons of his shirt undone.

"Link! Goddesses, would you put your clothes back on?" Zelda squeaked, covering her eyes as Link leaned forward, raising his eyebrows in a suggestive manner.

"I'd like to take _you_ to the tropi—"

"Excuse me, but could you two please leave? You're disrupting our other guests."

Outside, in the cold, where Link had his shirt buttoned back up and Zelda was still fussing over the marinara stain on her blouse, people were giving the couple a wide birth. They had made it about half a block through the city on their way back to the apartment complex before Link stopped walking and fixed Zelda with a completely and utterly exasperated glare.

Zelda stopped walking, tugging at her clothes in a self-conscious manner and frowning at Link.

"What?" She asked. "Does my _walking_ offe—"

"Stay still." He whispered, before completely invading her space, his face a mere scant inches away from hers as he focused once more on that spot just to the right of her left eye.

Zelda sighed, apparently Link—on top of being an insufferably childish and sinfully handsome young man—had some strange bridge-of-the-nose fetish.

Her thoughts came to a crashing halt as a warm palm cupped her face and she couldn't help the startled gasp that escaped her. Link reach forward with his other hand twirling that single lock of hair that had been taunting him all night around his finger and neatly resettling it in its proper position.

"Link?" Zelda questioned rather uneasily when his hand lingered on her face and he remained inside her personal square of space. "Umm…"

"_Much_ better," He breathed, warming her cheeks with the warmth from his breath as he regrettably stepped backwards. He seemed to be oblivious to her stricken state and he began walking forward once more, in a considerably more amicable mood. "So, what did you want to talk about? Snow? You know, my friends and I own this great little lodge out in Hylia and..."

Zelda remained rooted to that solitary spot on the sidewalk, her heartbeat still pounding in her ears. After a moment she remembered herself and hurried off down the sidewalk after Link, marinara stain forgotten.

"I actually _like_ the tropics," Zelda randomly interjected and Link broke off mid-sentence and gave her an odd look. Zelda shrugged, a grin stretching itself across her face. "My parents used to take me to this little island just off the coast, and it was just… what?"

Link was still staring at her, for some unfathomable reason, though she supposed it was because his brain couldn't comprehend the fact that she'd changed her mind about tropical weather.

"So, what?" Link asked in a childish manner. "_Now_ we can talk about hot things?

"Well, it's _cold_ out now." Zelda quipped defensively.

"Oh, you're cold?" Link asked, raising a brow in a wickedly suggestive manner. "Want me to warm you up?"

"Goddesses! Would you _stop _that? Let's just talk about snow!"

"But I don't want to talk about snow, I wanna talk about hot n' steamy things."

"Snow. Cold. Icicles. Hey! Stop pushing me off the sidewalk!"

"I was just trying to warm you up, it's not _my_ fault you keep moving away."

* * *

**A/N**: Another one-day update. But it was much longer than the other ones, so hopefully that'll make up for something. This is their much-anticipated dinner date. Darn that mischievous Malon. Oh, does anyone have any random subject requests? I lost my original theme list, and I need some help coming up with things.

Your reviews are my inspiration,

Cappucinno


	6. Delivery

**Disclaimer:** I do not and never will own the characters of The Legend of Zelda. Nor will I ever own Nintendo. Damn it.

* * *

**THE DAYS IN FEBRUARY  
**by Cappucinno

* * *

**ATTENTION**: Cappucinno has a new Zelink out! Somewhere in Between, pssst, go read it when you're done with this chapter! ;D

* * *

**o9. Delivery**

**Disclaimer:** I do not and never will own the characters of The Legend of Zelda. Nor will I ever own Nintendo. Damn it.

* * *

**THE DAYS IN FEBRUARY  
**by Cappucinno

* * *

**ATTENTION**: Cappucinno has a new Zelink out! Somewhere in Between, pssst, go read it when you're done with this chapter! ;D

* * *

**o9. Delivery**

"So, what happened last night?" Malon breathed excitedly into the phone, her tone entirely too giddy to ever be mistaken as innocent.

Zelda took a deep breath to calm herself, telling herself that if she started screaming at her best friend while she was supposed to be printing schedules she might draw some unnecessary attention from that creepy Ganon guy.

"Nothing. Happened." The blonde ground out, trying her hardest not to be mad at the scheming redhead on the phone. She put a cool hand against her forehead, leaning some of her weight against it. She'd been feeling faint since she'd woken up that morning and Malon wasn't helping.

"Ooh! So something _did _happen then." Zelda could almost see Malon waggling her eyebrows. "Anything… steamy? You holding out on me?"

Zelda really didn't think there was anything steamy about having meatballs thrown at her and told Malon as much.

"Enough about me." The blonde ground out as she hit the print button for the tenth time on the piece of shit computer she had been issued. "This Sheik guy must be pretty good, because there's no way you'd set me up like that, right?"

There was a confused silence from the other line. "…Sheik?" Malon asked, before seeming to quickly remember herself. "Oh, yeah, I tripped and umm… sprained my ankle and umm…"

"Sheik, the pre-med guy…" Zelda supplied helpfully.

"…What? Dude. Sheik is your boss."

"Oh, _that _Sheik…Wait. You ditched me for my boss?" The blonde paused in her mad print-button spree, a frown working its way onto her face. "Explain."

"Well, you work for a PR firm Zel." Malon answered slowly, like she was speaking to a very confusable five year old.

"Yeah, and…?" This conversation with Malon was giving her a godawful headache.

"And I'm the assistant to the CEO at Williams Sonoma," The redhead continued, pausing as if to mull something very important over in her mind. "Now, Zelda, sometimes big companies like mine and big PR firms work together, right?"

"Right. But—"

"And since Mr. Williams passed away and Mr. Sonoma is too old to want to move from the Board to the CEO position he called me in to help manage the transition—"

Zelda looked up as the elevator doors opened and she set the phone down as she turned her attention to the harried looking building secretary, Saria. The green haired young woman was holding a small brown bag stamped with the seal of Beyond Bizarre Bakery.

"Can I help you?" Zelda asked, raising a brow at the all-too familiar packaging.

"A Mr. Sonoma sent this for you, m'am." Saria responded, holding out the package.

"Mr. Sonoma?" Zelda asked, cocking her head slightly in a clearly puzzled manner. Saria looked down at her clipboard and nodded slowly, a worried frown working its way onto her brow.

"Yes, m'am. A Mr. Link Sonoma?" Saria asked, before hurrying on. "Oh dear, if he's an ex-boyfriend or a crazy stalker I—oh, I'm sorry to have brought up a bad subject—"

"No," Zelda interjected, taking the bag, her mind sluggishly putting together a confusing string of thoughts. Her head was starting to spin. And not in a metaphorical sense. She closed her eyes, leaning a bit more heavily into her hand. "No, no, it's fine. Umm… tell Link I said thank you."

Saria nodded and hurried off back into the elevator, likely in a rush to get back to her post on the lobby floor before some other delivery with the potential to go wrong arrived. Zelda reached for the phone and lifted it back up to her ear.

"—so then before dinner we talked and then his parents contacted him, completely out of nowhere, but not to me because I knew already, and they were all like, "Hey, son. We're dying and we know we booted you out and everything buuuut— And he was all like—"

"Malon!" Zelda interrupted, rubbing her forehead. Was she imaging things, or was her forehead hotter than usual? "Link… he's…?"

"The soon to be heir CEO of Williams Sonoma. I just said that. And then _I'm_—"

"…Zelda?"

"….Zel? …Hello?"

Saria actually had something to worry about that afternoon when an angry Nabooru stormed into the lobby telling her to call an ambulance because her secretary had fainted.

* * *

**A/N**: The next chapter will have three days. I swear. Sorry for the one-day update even though it took forever guys. I've been putting a lot of energy into a new story, another Zelink, Somewhere in Between, please go read it! It'd mean the world to me. (Shameless plug, I know. xD )

Your reviews are my inspiration,  
Cappucinno

* * *

**A/N**: The next chapter will have three days. I swear. Sorry for the one-day update even though it took forever guys. I've been putting a lot of energy into a new story, another Zelink, Somewhere in Between, please go read it! It'd mean the world to me. (Shameless plug, I know. xD )

Your reviews are my inspiration,  
Cappucinno


	7. Surprises and Flowers

**Disclaimer:** I do not and never will own the characters of The Legend of Zelda. Nor will I ever own Nintendo. Damn it. Also, you may recognize some of the dialogue in this chapter from the show Suits-the dialogue about "questions" is not mine, it was borrowed. I am not the artist who made the beautiful cover art, it was found on Zerochan and borrowed.

* * *

**THE DAYS IN FEBRUARY  
**by Cappucinno

* * *

**Day 9, Part Two. Surprises**

"Morning Link!" Malon chorused, perched on their couch with a wide grin and a cup of coffee.

Link was decidedly less of a morning person and eyed the red-head suspiciously as he grumbled his way through their living room and into their kitchen. He opened the fridge, ignoring the to-go boxes from his food-war dinner appointment with Zelda the night prior. Crouton prisoners of war mixed with a small army of floored meatballs was appealing to him only on a nostalgic level. Eat the stuff?

Link shuddered at the thought. He was a restauranteur. Never in a million years.

"So…" Malon began and Link waved her off.

"No."

"But…"

"No, Malon."

"Link." Her voice was firmly insistent. "Come on. You've gotta spill."

The blonde in question turned, expression thoughtful as he pulled a carton of eggs out of the fridge. "Do I?" He turned his attention back to the eggs hunting for an expiration date. "Do you remember how old this is Mal?"

"Three weeks. You won't die." Before she'd lost Link's attention Malon hopped up off the couch and snatched the egg carton from his hands. She smacked his hands away as he reached for it, wagging her coffee cup at him. "Nuh-uh. You got a question, I get a question. Fair is fair."

Link didn't look convinced and he made another grab from the eggs—he was rewarded with hot coffee splashing over his fingers.

"Shit! Malon." He glared.

"Question!" Malon bulldozed over his objection, still unusually bright eyed and bushy tailed. "How was the date?"

"Fine." Link answered tersely, folding his arms impatiently.

"If you want these eggs, you're gonna do better than that."

"Malon, you set us up. What do you want me to say?" Link sighed, exasperated, groggy, and hungry. A hungry Link was not a happy Link.

"Come on, we both know you two have been running in circles around each other for like, almost two weeks now. Spill!"

"It was fun," Link said, shrugging. "Food fight. Got kicked out. Walked us home."

"Anything…?"

"Happen? Malon, I'm telling you, it's all in your head." And with that he grabbed the eggs, turning to gather some other random ingredients for what was likely to be his breakfast frittata.

"It is _not _a figment of my imagination. Did you _see _how distracted she was when your shirt was off? I told you that would happen, and it did." Malon broke off, frowning. "Hey. What was that look?"

Link glanced over his shoulder at the redhead, hesitating for a second.

"Malon, have you seen how almost _every _girl reacts when I don't have a shirt on?" There was no arrogance there, just a tired stating of the facts. "I'm young, I can cook, and I'm rich."

"And you're hot."

"_And _I'm hot. Forgive me if I'm wary of women."

"You know you're not cute when you're all cynical right?"

Link turned his attention to his frittata, ignoring the redhead.

"Well fine. But you said it was fun. You were happy right?"

"Malon…" There was a hint of warning in Link's voice.

"_Right?"_

"…Yeah," Link refused to look up from his eggs, and there was a hint of wistfulness around his eyes that Malon hadn't seen before. "Yeah, I was."

"So…?" Malon fished, looking a little too pleased with herself.

"Malon, that's not a question."

"She's gorgeous, and she's smart, and you have fun with her."

"That's still not a question."

"She doesn't trip over herself fawning over you."

"…Do you even know what a question _is, _Malon?"

"Do you like her?" Malon asked, seating herself on the counter.

"She's nice." Link responded noncommittally, moving his frittata from the stove to the oven.

"That's it?" The redhead didn't try to mask her disappointment, visibly wilting.

"Yes, that's _it—_" The blonde looked up and sighed, shoulders sinking as he took in Malon's depressed posture. "Look, I don't _know _Malon, alright? Besides, she can't stand my guts."

"I think Zellie likes you. Even if Zellie doesn't know she likes you."

"So you keep telling me."

"She comes to your bakery _all _the time. She stares at your ass. She gets flustered when you're shirtless. She _always _complains about you. Even when I wasn't at dinner, she stayed and ate with you. She didn't have to, she could have left."

"…Alright, so she _tolerates _me. And I have fun with her. That's it."

"Okay. Fine. I have a surprise for you."

"I don't _like _surprises Mal."

There was a beat of silence and Link seemed determined to sweep the whole thing under the rug. Malon took a deep breath, bracing herself for the blonde's reaction.

"I told her who you were."

Link went perfectly still, then turned around in such a way that movie effect slow-motion was put to shame.

"You. Did. What?" He asked, his voice dangerously controlled.

"This morning. I told her."

"_And?" _Link demanded, a hint of impatience seeping into his voice.

"And she's in the hospital. Beth Israel." Malon finished.

The blonde cursed, frittata forgotten as he made a mad dash for his shoes and his car keys, embarrassing pajama pants at all. Malon absentmindedly handed him a jacket to cover his naked torso and smiled deviously into her coffee cup and the door slammed behind the handsome young heir.

"That's it _my ass_. Totally likes her."

* * *

**Day 10. Flowers.**

Zelda, upon the dual insistence of Malon and Nabooru, had allowed the doctors to keep her in the hospital overnight for observation. It was a decision that she was rapidly coming to regret. How many nurses _were _there, and _why _on earth did every single one of them want to wake her up and ask her if she was okay?

The blonde was in a decidedly scowly mood. The day before had been a whirlwind of activity after waking up in the hospital. Something about a rapid drop in blood pressure and possibly a case of pneumonia. She blamed Link. She blamed Link for all of it.

If she hadn't trudged to that stupid bakery in the stupid rain to get the stupid bread from the infuriating man, she probably wouldn't have had the beginnings of pneumonia. And if she hadn't gotten the shock of her life from hearing that said infuriating man was the heir to a Fortune 500 company, she wouldn't have fainted. Hence, everything was Link's fault.

Even if the aforementioned heir had burst into her hospital room in his pajamas with a woman's sweater and Italian made leather shoes no more than five minutes after she'd initially woken up, spouting a million apologies and tripping over himself (and her IV drip) to work his way to her bedside to check for a fever. It was endearing, in a way.

If she hadn't been so pissed off, she might have even realized that some part of her was happy he'd come. As it was, she'd only been mildly less pissed off at him for coming to see her.

She had a headache from lack of sleep and the hospital food tasted like shit. Zelda liked to think that she could Link for that too. Vicariously, anyhow.

Malon had come by at some point as well, grinning like the Cheshire Cat and generally regretting nothing. She'd been in an inordinately good mood, for reasons that she refused to tell her ailing friend, and she kept going on about how some _plan _that was working.

Zelda didn't want to know what the plan was, or why it was working. All Zelda wanted was sleep. As she closed her eyes and tried to zen herself into slumber she heard the door of her room creak open and she immediately scowled.

"_Yes_, I am fine. _Please _do not wake me up to ask me if I'm fine. I am. I promise. Go away."

There was a pause, and the sound of footsteps slowly approaching.

Zelda opened her eyes, scowling more, and was greeted with the sight of… flowers. She blinked, as if to dispel an illusion. The flowers were still there.

Enough flowers to cover the surface of her entire apartment for a year. Flowers in every shape and color known to man, arranged in a vase as tall as her six year old niece Aryll.

And then the flowers spoke.

"Alright. Not asking. Glad you're fine. You uh—where can I put this?"

Zelda blinked again.

"_Link?" _

"Yeah. Link. Listen, this is heavy so can I just?"

"Uh. Yeah. On that counter over there."

The flowers shuffled sideways until they sat on a shelf stacked with every edition of Cosmo known to man and a smattering of get-well-soon cards. Then they sighed in relief and Link appeared, sleeves rolled up to his elbows and shirt stained with flower water.

There was a beat of silence.

"So listen, I'm really sorry about… you know." The handsome heir waved his hand vaguely and Zelda nodded, half wondering if she was delirious.

"I don't forgive you. My head hurts and the food is gross." Zelda said, a little too hasty to be genuine.

Link just smiled.

"And they think I have pneumonia. I blame you."

"…You think I gave you pneumonia?"

"Your stupid bakery gave me pneumonia."

"…I'm… sorry my bakery gave you pneumonia."

"It's the bread's fault. It's addictive. If I hadn't walked in the rain, I wouldn't have pneumonia."

"Ah. Well, the bread is sorry it gave you pneumonia."

"Good. It should be."

Another beat of silence.

"…Why is the chair moving closer?"

"Well, if you have pneumonia, you should stay warm right? I happen to be a very warm pers—"

"Link, get OUT of my hospital bed!"

"But it's warmer here and—"

"This is twin sized, not sharing sized—"

"Nonsense, it's fun size—"

"Just get out!"

* * *

**A/N: **Well, it's been forever and a half. I make no excuses except... forgive me, I'm back? This will get finished. Even if it takes me another couple of years to remember to do so. Though hopefully, it's not going to take that long this time around.


	8. Swimming and Stoicism

**THE DAYS IN FEBRUARY  
**by Cappucinno

* * *

**Day 11. Swim**

Zelda sat at her desk pointedly ignoring the clutter of flowers and get-well-soon cards that had been there to greet her when she'd arrived at the office that morning. She ignored tidings, worried coworkers, and the occasional attempt at small talk. She stared only at the Microsoft Outlook display on her computer, fingers laced tightly together, foot tapping anxiously.

"Zelda?"

The blonde in question didn't lift her eyes from her computer screen.

"Hm?" She responded, arching an eyebrow at the disembodied voice of her boss.

"Is everything alright?"

"Hm."

"It's six o'clock. You can go now."

Zelda glanced at the time in the bottom left hand corner of her monitor, then shifted her gaze back to the e-mail inbox.

"I'll just be five more minutes."

"I'm not giving you any overtime pay for that."

"No overtime, just five more minutes."

Nabooru frowned, crossing her arms. "…Are you sure you're alright?"

Zelda didn't look up but her expression became contemplative. After a moment of silence she finally responded. "I think he's ignoring me."

"Who?"

"No one." Zelda closed her inbox tab abruptly and flashed a plastic smile at her boss as she all but slammed the lid of her laptop shut. "I think I'll just go now, actually."

"Zelda?" Nabooru continued to frown, her long lacquered nails tapping against her crossed arms.

The blonde continued to rapidly pack away her things.

"You know, normally you'd have calculated what five minutes of overtime was worth and try to coerce me into paying you."

"It tends to work." Zelda responded, distracted as she zipped up the laptop component of her leather bag. She slung the bag over her shoulder and brushed a strand of hair from her face as she offered up a tight smile. "So then, I'll see you tomorrow."

Nabooru raised a hand, effectively stopping Zelda as she moved to brush past the redhead and towards the elevators.

"Okay, stop. You're seriously off."

Zelda's mouth opened to object, but Nabooru steamrolled on.

"You're normally funny. At least in a pretentious, clever, mock-polite kind of way—that's a compliment by the way—but today your timing is way off, your dialogue is nonexistent, and you haven't even sent any remotely witty comments on the e-mails you've been forwarding me."

"You don't pay me for that, ma'am." Zelda responded in a clipped voice, plastic-smiling. "But if you want to compensate me for staying late to have this discu—"

"Ugh! Stop stop stop. That just came off bitchy, not witty _at all—_"

Zelda threw her hands up in the air in exasperation.

"Well excuse me then! But I've been sick and then I got this _damn _news and then I wasn't sure if the bakery was going to stay open and I'm addicted to this _godforsaken _bread and then the place was closed. Closed! Of all things, with no notice! And then I text him and I get _nothing_! Nothing, Nabooru, nothing! I _never _have to text a man first. And _then _I send him this _e-mail_ and still, nothing! And god, he's so frustrating, it's like he keeps throwing me into a river and I don't know how to swim!"

Nabooru raised an eyebrow in response. Zelda sniffed defensively, twirling a piece of hair back around her ear as she straightened her posture.

"But I do."

"…You do what Zelda?"

"I do know how to swim."

* * *

**Day 12. Stoic**

_Raprapraprap rap rap._

Zelda sighed deeply, summoning all of her willpower as she rolled over and burrowed into her comforter. Blissfully warm, she dutifully ignored the knocking on her apartment door. Sleep began to come back over her as the noise ceased—

RAPRAPAP RAP RAP RAPRAPRAP

The blonde frowned, pushing herself halfway up on the bed to look at her clock. Saturday, eight a.m. With an irritated sigh she flopped back down onto the bed, pulling the covers up over her ears and determinedly shutting her eyes.

POUNDPOUNDPOUNDPOUNDPOUNDPOU NDPOUND.

Her eyes flew back open and the blonde yanked the covers off of herself with an angry flourish as she stormed towards the door. Still numb from sleep her fingers fumbled over the locks as the pounding continued until, finally, she wrenched the door open and almost off of its hinges.

"WHAT IN DIN'S GOOD NAME—"

A small brown bag was abruptly thrust into her face, effectively silencing her. Zelda blinked her eyes back into focus, pulling her head far enough from the bag to read the letters. A second later she wrapped her hands around the familiar bakery bag and took a half step back.

Link's face came into focus, uncharacteristically stoic.

Self-consciousness crept up on her and she cleared her throat, tucking her hair back behind her ears as if doing so would make it look less like she'd just woken up. Inexplicably, Link refused to make eye contact. In fact, he seemed determined to stare at the wall over her shoulder.

Silence stretched between them.

Zelda cleared her throat again, shifting on her feet. "Sorry."

"I just came by to say sorry about not responding yesterday, I was out at some meetings. I had a feeling you might be missing this." Link gestured vaguely to the bakery bag and made a sound somewhere between a cough and a laugh. "But I must have woken you up."

"You could tell?" Link remained silent, stoic, and focused on the wall. Zelda self-consciously checked her breath, taking advantage of his refusal to look at her. Was it that bad? It didn't seem all that bad.

The silence morphed into a pregnant pause as Zelda straightened her spine, summoning all of the dignity and dream-muddled logic she could muster in her newly woken state.

"I can, just so you know. I don't know what my boss might have said or if you saw her, but I can."

Link seemed to hesitate for a moment, before meeting her eyes. In that moment Zelda noticed a gamely hidden smile in the set of his lips and angry indignation bloomed in her chest at the idea of being the victim of some strange joke—

"Oh, I know."

"Know what? What do you think I meant by 'I can'—"

"Answer the door in your underwear, apparently."

Zelda's mouth snapped shut muffling a loud squeak as her face went from pink to crimson. Link's eyes slipped down and that carefully stoic expression remained firmly on his face.

"So then, are you gonna—"

The door slammed in his face. Link allowed himself to smile, one hand covering his mouth as he filed away the memory.

"—Evidently, yes. But I was kind of hoping that if I tried to be a gentleman about the whole thing then maybe you wouldn't shut the door on me."

Zelda's voice was loud and clear from behind the door.

"GO THE HELL AWAY, LINK. JUST GO. NOW. GO."

He obediently did so in hopes that she wouldn't notice the blush on his face or his awkward gait.

* * *

**A/N**: My only excuse for this lateness was going back to college. Except I wrote this my first week back at college. So really, no excuse. But let me know what you think, and if you're still here! Pardon the cliche naked-door scene.

Love,

Cappucinno


	9. Breakfast and Business

**THE DAYS IN FEBRUARY  
**by Cappucinno

* * *

**Day 13. Breakfast**

The next morning Zelda was having serious problems looking Link in the eye.

After slamming the door in his face following being caught with her pants down so-to-speak, she'd been carefully avoiding the infuriatingly charming, devastatingly handsome Link Sonoma. Of course, Malon had caught wind of the whole thing and ran over later that night demanding details and generally having a feminine fit.

Thinking about it, that was really when this whole trouble began. Something about seeing Zelda surrounded by a sea of tissues, pink-nosed, and coughing with a sick kitten had reminded Malon that her best friend was, in fact, recovering from a bout of illness that had prompted her to faint at work. She was appropriately worried and fussy and insisted upon staying with her to make sure she didn't get any worse.

That was all well and good, but then Malon being Malon—better known as Malon being a devious little shit—had coerced into coming upstairs to an impromptu brunch date the next morning.

There had been some logic to quell Zelda's protest—something along the lines of her fridge being empty and generally being too ill to take care of herself—and she was forced to give in.

Which put her where she was now, sitting across the table from Link, dutifully pushing her scrambled eggs around on her plate and carefully avoiding all eye-contact.

Link for his part was grinning at her over his breakfast plate like a madman.

He was also conspicuously shirtless.

"God, Link, these pancakes are the best. Aren't they the best Zel?" Malon was shamelessly oblivious to the struggle taking place between her tablemates.

Zelda hmm-ed unconvincingly.

"Well, I think they're pretty damn good. Thanks for making breakfast so last minute, Link."

"No, thank _you_, Malon." Link responded, smug and debonair all at once with that Cheshire-cat grin on his face. He turned to Zelda with feigned politeness, smiling a little too broadly and looking a little too self-satisfied. "So what do you think of them, Zelda?"

"I think you should put a damn shirt on."

"I don't seem to recall _you _having a shirt on the other morning—"

Zelda dissolved into coughing fits, glaring at the man. Through the coughing her words were lost, but judging from the few syllables that came out clearly they weren't fit for dining table conversation.

Malon chose that moment to disappear into the kitchen.

"What was that princess?" Link's grin grew. Zelda was decidedly against noticing that between his shirtless-ness and that smile, he was being incredibly distracting.

"You know, I _really_ don't like you." She sighed and rubbed her forehead, massaging away the headache she knew she was getting from this breakfast ordeal.

"I think you're just mad I saw you naked."

Zelda would have corrected him, but doing so only to clarify that he'd only seen her in her underwear didn't seem like much of a victory. Instead she just glared and blew her nose at him in response. Loudly.

It didn't seem to deter Link in the slightest.

"You know, I didn't really take you for the sleeping-in-nothing kind of girl…"

"I would really appreciate it if you didn't think about what I might sleep in."

"Now why would I do that when you already don't like me?"

Zelda contemplated throwing her nose-blowing napkin at him.

Link just smiled.

* * *

**Day 14. Business**

"Link? …Hello? Earth to Link?"

Link blinked back into awareness with a start as Malon waved a hand in front of his face.

"Sorry, what was that?"

Across the conference table from him Malon sighed and ran a hand over her face. Between them was a litany of executive files, various news clippings, mountains of statistical analysis, and other "critical" documents that had fallen into his lap with the death of his father's business partner.

"You know, it would be nice if you could, I don't know, _not _think of Zelda naked while we're trying to work." Malon said sarcastically, absentmindedly shifting piles around in front of her.

"I wasn't—" Link stopped at Malon's death-glare. "…alright, well not _naked _anyway."

Malon sighed loudly. Link had more or less begun to think of her sighs as silent screams. As it were, he'd been subject to her silently screaming at him with great frequency over the past few days while they struggled to sort out exactly what he would need to do to assume position as CEO of his father's company.

Honestly, he would rather be at Beyond Bizarre Bakery sorting out shifts with Shane.

"Link!"

He snapped back to attention again.

"What?"

Malon gave him a pointed look and he threw his hands up in the air exasperatedly.

"I wasn't!" He defended himself with a scowl and some aggravated hand-waving. "Seriously! I wasn't! I was thinking about Shane."

The redhead across the table put the papers in front of her down and raised a brow incredulously.

"Link, is there newfound curiosity you're not telling me about?"

"Goddamn it Malon." Link ground out, trying to resist the urge to reach over and strangle his assistant. "Shane and the _bakery. The bakery._"

"Ohhh. Well, that's a relief."

Sensing his frustration, the redhead wisely chose to avoid bringing up the topic of Zelda. Instead she frowned and sat back, reading between his tense shoulders and general air of distraction.

Malon straightened and leaned forward, looking at her roommate a little more seriously.

"Link, you know, if you don't want to do this… you can tell your dad to find someone else."

Link's shoulders sagged and his gaze drifted to the window, looking out over the city from the high-rise corner office he'd inherited. After a moment he shook his head and reached for one of the many papers littering the table.

"No, it's fine. I owe him this much, at least." He blew his bangs from his eyes, making a mental note to get to the barber at some point in the next week. "So, back to business—what do we want to do about these tax expenditures?"

"Link." This time he was the one to raise his brows as he looked up at Malon. "What about your bakery? That's your dream. I mean that was, you know, _the plan._"

Link looked back at the paper in front of him, skimming it over.

"It'll be fine. The staff can manage without me full time."

"Wait. You're not closing it?"

Malon and Link looked at each other with equal surprise.

"Close it? Why on earth would I close it?" Link looked at the redhead incredulously. "Do you have any _idea _how many bets I'm on my way to winning at that place?"

* * *

A/N: And so ends another chapter. Any feedback on the pace, characters, relationships—whatever you think up—is more than welcome. I hope you enjoyed reading! I'll see you all next week (with any luck).

Love,

Cappucinno


	10. Valentine's Day

**THE DAYS IN FEBRUARY  
**by Cappucinno

* * *

**Day 14, Part Two. Valentine**

Zelda drummed the fingers of her left hand nervously on the countertop as the phone rang. She told herself that the only reason she was calling Link on Valentine's Day was because Malon had failed to show up at her apartment for their annual Valentine's Singles dinner.

There was no other reason she was calling Link Sonoma on Valentine's Day. None.

And if he thought there was, then that was his problem.

Ring… Ring…

Zelda contemplated hanging up.

Ring…

But that would make it seem like she was second guessing herself.

Ring… Ring…

Which wouldn't happen if she were only calling to discover her best friend's whereabouts.

She stayed on the line, fingers still drumming out their nervous marching tune.

"Zelda?"

"Link!" Zelda's heart lurched in response and she took a deep breath. "I mean. Hey. I'm looking for Mal—"

"Real quick, Zel—do you have any plans for tonight?" Link sounded uncharacteristically rushed.

Zelda's fingers froze on the countertop.

"…Zelda? Hello?"

"I was supposed to…" Her resolve was replaced with a decidedly unwelcome rush of nervousness. Before she could process her response her mouth was opening and she was spewing out words that would later come to regret. "—No. No, I don't have any plans."

"Great." Zelda kicked herself. "Do you want to come meet me at the bakery?"

"No."

"…What?"

"I mean, fine."

"Fine? You don't have to, Zel."

"Sure. I meant, sure."

* * *

Zelda didn't know what she'd been expecting when she'd showed up at Beyond Bizarre Bakery that night, but it wasn't this. She'd barely walked through the front door before Link came bursting out of the staff room, arms piled precariously high with fresh steaming food and clattering coffee mugs.

"Zelda!" Link was half-shouting to be heard over the loud stream of Sinatra and Dean Martin that blared in the background, but Zelda could _see _the relief on his face. "Thank Din you're here!"

What had she gotten herself into? She stared at the restaurant, bewildered.

Couples and singles alike filled every available seating area, flooding the familiar booths and bistro tables. Candles that might have passed for romantic if they weren't green lit the tables and blinking Christmas lights twinkled from where they had been haphazardly hung over the wall sconces and tucked into the ceiling boards.

Link was bustling around the restaurant—aided by some long-haired surfer looking man—depositing food, drinks, and plentiful smiles to the waiting patrons. He was admirably efficient, dashing in every way, and oozing the classic Link charm.

Even so, there was no getting around it. He was in way over his head.

If it hadn't been Link, Zelda was sure that someone would have ended up with food in their lap or coffee tipping all over their table. As it was, the service was just as perfect as the food itself. Except… well, it didn't have the element that Beyond Bizarre was known for.

There wasn't any time for relaxed banter or a friendly back and forth, no feeling of camaraderie or the personal element that so many came to look for there.

Zelda looked down at her carefully picked black dress—just barely above knee-length, a tasteful scoop neckline, wide straps but no sleeves—and sighed. As Link made his way over she slipped the wide silver cuff bracelet off her wrist and into her bag along with her pearl necklace.

By the time he made it to her, hands now empty, she was plainly adorned save for her heels. She thanked Nayru that she hadn't ended up doing much with her makeup, because that one could have been hard to explain.

_Oh, hi Link. I just came to help all dressed up looking like I was ready for a date. Not that I thought it was a date, I just love dressing up to waitress._

Somehow, she didn't think she would have lived that one down.

"Zelda!" He said, breathless and just the slightest bit flushed. "Sorry about this, I don't have much time but can you—"

She put a hand on his arm, guiding the restaurant owner back towards the kitchen at a brisk pace.

"Walk and talk, Link. What can I do?" She was proud to say that her voice was all business, no disappointed female.

Link sighed in relief and took the lead, placing a hand on her back and marching her into the kitchen at a pace that outstripped her own. He released her when he reached the kitchen area and rushed back to the industrial griddle and prep area, presumably returning to what he had been doing before she got there and making orders at rapid speed from the slips pinned up to the hood of the stovetop.

"I'm backed up here, but it's pretty simple—sorry, I just don't have the time to do all this myself. What I need you to do is…"

He proceeded to rattle off the order system even as he slid plates of completed food to her and she scrambled to arrange the platters and garnish the plates. She memorized table numbers and locations, people's names, how they liked their food, how to hold a tray of food and drink without spilling anything and hit the ground running.

She rushed around the tables with the surfer-looking waiter—she'd learned his name with Shane—dropping off orders and making small talk, laughing and smiling where appropriate. After the initial rush, Link himself came back out with trays of his own and this time he wasn't rushing.

He stopped at the tables, smiling and asking how people were—how've you been? How's the family? The dog doing well? Your kid walking yet?—and the Beyond Bizarre vibe came back. Somehow, between the three of them, Beyond Bizarre ran smoothly that crazy Valentine's Day night.

Shane rushed around the tables, Link alternately slaved between the kitchen and visiting his customers, and Zelda worked in the gray space between hostess, waitress, and kitchen manager. They worked late into the night, until Link began to turn down the cheerful and melodic background noise of the Rat Pack, and the last of the Valentine's Day crowd had begun to trickle out.

The last customer had come alone and didn't leave until well after 11 pm, when Link finally shut the kitchen down and lied about the espresso machine being broken. It took the combined efforts of Link and Zelda to get him out the door and when he finally did they both took a deep breath and basked in the silence of Beyond Bizarre.

* * *

"Whew," Link said, sinking down into a chair at one of the now empty tables. "Big night."

Zelda became acutely aware of how much her feet hurt in the black pumps she'd unwisely chosen to wear and settled herself in a chair opposite Link. They were both silent for a while, letting the comfortable silence fall in.

"I don't know how you do this every day." Zelda said after a few minutes, sliding her shoes off. "Really, it's lot."

"Well, it usually doesn't get so packed." There was a pause and she scowled at him even before he continued speaking. "And I usually don't work in heels."

"Shut up." Zelda quipped, without any of the usual bite. She smiled across the table at him, telling herself that it was just a side effect of physical exhaustion that she felt a little warmth in her chest.

Link smiled lazily back at her and there was something in his eyes—always a beautiful blue, but deeper somehow tonight—that she couldn't place. Between them, one of the green candles that he'd set out was flickering with its last breath.

Zelda tried to ignore the way the candlelight made the light and shadows around them dance.

"Can I just ask what's up with the green candles?"

"I kind of… forgot it was February. They were left over from last year's St. Patrick's Day." Link had the decency to look sheepish, his warm smile turning into the more familiar crooked grin.

"You had candles leftover from St. Patrick's Day but not Valentine's Day? Do you even really need candles for St. Patrick's?" Zelda raised a brow at him.

"We usually don't have a Valentine's Day service."

Zelda blinked over the table at him. Link just shrugged and didn't quite meet her gaze.

The silence fell over them again. Somewhere in the background, the music stopped playing and the candle burned out.

"Zelda…" Link's voice was different, somehow, from its usual tone. There was nothing teasing or taunting, no false charm, just something soft and earnest that made her heart stop. "Look—"

"Hey man, I'm heading out for the night!" The both jumped as Shane walked into the room, fussing with a black backpack. "I nabbed some leftovers before I cleaned the kitchen up, sorry if you wanted any man—"

Shane stopped talking and looked curiously at the both of them.

"Oh dude. Sorry, did I interrupt something?"

"Nope." Link's voice was back to normal and that boyish smile came back. Zelda's heart resumed beating. "Thanks for sticking around, Shane. See you tomorrow!"

Shane shrugged and said his good nights before slipping out the door and disappearing down the block.

Link rose, stretching his arms up above his head with a satisfied noise.

"Well, we should head out too. It's been a long night."

* * *

They made the walk back to the apartment complex in relative silence and the night around them was still. At one o'clock in the morning, the streets were empty of the bustling Valentine's Day crowd.

The moon was doing something funny to Zelda's thoughts and when they were half a block from their respective apartments she reached for Link's hand. It was warmer than she expected, solid and strong as it closed immediately around her own.

Neither of them said anything at all.

That last stretch of the walk felt the longest, the crisp pre-dawn air a stark contrast to the warmth she felt. They stopped, at last in front of her door. Link turned to face her, his grip on her hand loosening but not quite dissipating.

"I just wanted to thank you, again." His voice was weird again, Zelda noticed distantly. "I don't know what we would have done without you."

"It's no problem, it was actually a lot of fu—"

"I wasn't done talking." A little bit of his usual wryness returned and she stilled as he put a finger to her lips to shush her. "As I was saying, it would have been a mess without you. You really saved me tonight. I owe you big time."

Zelda opened her mouth and Link pinched it shut. She scowled.

"I'm still talking. Stop making that face." She stopped. "And I just wanted to say… you looked really nice tonight. You probably dressed up—no, Zelda, still talking here—" She scowled some more. Link rolled his eyes. "I'm trying to apologize here. Let me finish."

Zelda moved to put her hands up in surrender, forgetting about Link's hand intertwined with hers. Their linked hands were next to her face and she found herself staring at them.

His hand dwarfed hers, his skin more golden than her own. His hands were callused and there were old burns on his knuckles that she'd never noticed before and—and his lips were really warm against her forehead.

Her eyes shut, her heart pounding dangerously fast. She felt Link's hand squeeze hers tightly and then the feeling of his lips on her forehead disappeared. Her eyes opened, her mind feeling foggy and her thoughts frustratingly distant.

The first thing she registered was Link looking at her in that weird way again—and then he was smiling. His smile was hesitant and uncertain, not as cocksure as she was used to and his hand released hers.

She stared at him and he cleared his throat.

"I just wanted to apologize if you were disappointed. I wasn't thinking about the fact that it was Valentine's Day when you called and what you might have thought, then I asked you to come over and—"

"Link?" Zelda's thoughts still weren't quite coming together. "Stop talking."

He did so.

Zelda nodded. "Good." She fumbled with her key and it took her an embarrassing three times to unlock her door. She turned back to him, only just noticing that he was still looking apprehensive and uncertain.

Her only thought was that this really wasn't a good idea and she'd never live it down, but it wasn't enough to stop her from doing it.

Zelda sighed and fisted his shirt, yanking him rather forcefully down and pressing her lips against his. She melted a little, still not releasing his shirt, even as she felt him go still. His lips were warm against her own, warmer than before, warmer than his hands, and she sighed into the kiss.

After a moment she let go of his shirt and moved back to look at his face, feeling distinctly dizzy. He was staring back at her looking like he'd been frozen in place.

She raised one finger, looking and feeling a little drunk despite the fact that she'd had nothing to drink.

"One time thing," She heard herself saying through the haze in her head. "Cause it's Valentine's Day."

Link nodded dumbly and she felt a vague sense of accomplishment.

"Okay. Goodnight."

The door shut.

Link stayed frozen in the hallway, staring at nothing.

* * *

**A/N:** Kind of odd to do Valentine's Day in October, but there you go! We're officially halfway through this story now, woo! Thanks for sticking around so long, despite my erratic update schedule. I guess the only thing I can ask you guys is... what do you think? I had fun with this, even if it took me a while. I hope you guys enjoyed the longer update-it's my thank you for being so patient.

Until next time,

Cappucinno


	11. The Morning After

**THE DAYS IN FEBRUARY  
**by Cappucinno

**Day 15, The Morning After**

"So what did you end up doing for Valentine's Day, Malon?" Zelda asked, peering suspiciously at the redhead over the rim of her coffee mug.

Malon shrugged noncommittally. "Oh you know, not much. Just hang out with my cat and watched a movie."

Zelda looked flatly at her friend. "Really."

"Yes, really."

"You're smiling into your coffee, Malon." Zelda said accusingly.

"Am I?" Malon asked, smiling a little wider as she raised the mug to her lips. "Well, it's good coffee."

"So, you were just at home with your cat and Mulan?" Zelda asked, keeping her expression carefully neutral.

"The Little Mermaid." Malon corrected, nodding along.

"Without your phone?" She did her best to keep her tone as innocuous as possible.

Predictably, Malon's eyebrows knit themselves into a half-frown as they were like to do when she was about to get caught in a lie. They twitched and drew together and then smoothed out again and Malon smiled the most serene smile that Zelda had ever seen on the conniving little fox.

"I had it on silent, so it wouldn't disturb the movie."

"The Lion King right?" Zelda asked.

"Right, you know that part when Simba's down in the riverbed waiting for Mufasa and—"

"Right, you know that part where Simba isn't in the Little Mermaid?"

"Shit." Malon had the decency to look half-guilty. "I forgot I picked the Little Mermaid."

"Obviously." Zelda said dryly, crossing her arms with her coffee cup still in hand. "You also forgot the part where we have an annual tradition and where I would have maimed you with this coffee here if you'd honestly stood me up and put me through hell to watch The Little Mermaid with your damn _cat._"

"Look Zel, I know you've always been jealous of the cat but—okay. Okay. Valentine's Day. Right." Malon cleared her throat and leaned back in her seat, looking dangerously thoughtful. After a moment of silence, she cocked her head and looked curiously back at Zelda over her own coffee cup mirroring her.

"Wait, so what did you end up doing for Valentine's Day?" Malon's eyes lit up with impish glee. "Nice try, Zel, but you're a little _too _focused on this line of questioning."

It was Zelda's turn to look guilty and the blonde shifted uncomfortably in her seat, imploring her coffee with her eyes to give her a way out of this situation.

"…Wait. Zelda. You _did _do something on Valentine's Day."

"Not really." The blonde responded, lifting her mug anxiously to her lips and moving her gaze up to the ceiling.

"…Zelda. Spill."

"I waitressed, okay?" Zelda's normally pale skin was rapidly taking on a curious tinge of pink that Malon was more used to seeing on the tips of her ears mid-screamfest rather than flooding into the apples of her cheeks.

"…At like, a strip club?" Malon asked, raising a brow. "No judgement, but. Judging."

"No, goddesses Malon! Not a strip club!" Zelda was blushing even harder now, though at least she was making eye contact and glaring rather than giving the ceiling puppy dog eyes.

"Then where?" Malon prodded patiently with that ear-to-eat shit-eating grin that was distinctly Malon when she was pleased with herself.

"The Bakery." Zelda sighed and threw her arms up in the air. "I was waitressing at the Bakery."

"Waitressing or _waitressing_?" Malon asked, with an accompanying suggestive eyebrow wagging that earned her a much-deserved middle finger from her decidedly _un_professional best friend.

"Waitressing Malon. Taking orders. Carrying food. _Cleaning_."

"Aw, you should have stopped at taking orders. Now I can't turn that into an innuendo."

Zelda stopped mid-sentence and fixed Malon with a glare that could have curdled milk if milk were composed of anything remotely resembling cells with visual receptors.

"Okay. Okay. Sorry. No need to give me _the look_."

"And that's it." Zelda finished curtly and took a sip of her coffee.

"That's it?"

"And that's it."

"That's it. Okay. Then why do you look like you have a stick up your ass?"

"_And _I kissed him."

"You _kissed _him?" Malon's voice rose two octaves and the reading glasses she had been wearing slid down to her nose as she looked Zelda up and down.

Zelda, to her credit, was sitting with her ankles crossed, shoulders back, posture perfectly straight, arms still half crossed, coffee cup still in hand and with a controlled, stoic, prim expression that made her look like a young Queen Elizabeth.

"_Kiiiissed him?!" _

"Goddesses Malon, saying it louder doesn't really accomplish anything."

"_Kissed him?"_ Malon whisper-hissed, leaning forward over the table with an expression that equal parts shock, horror, and utter delight. "Reeallly?"

"I was drunk." Zelda said stiffly, maintaining her general stick-up-the-ass aura.

"Drunk?" Malon asked, looking now more parts horror than shock or delight.

"Drunk?" A low, rich, too-casual voice echoed and Zelda's heart stopped. "Ah. Well that explains that then."

Malon was silent and bug-eyed as she leaned back in her seat, trying her best to disappear.

Zelda turned slowly to look at Link as he stood there by their table with a to-go tray upon which sat two cups of coffee—one marked CM, nonfat, extra caramel (just the way she liked it) and Link smiled that slow, half-smile that she knew now to be insincere even though it made his cheeks dimple and his eyes crinkle slightly at the corners.

"Well then, let's just put that behind us." He slid into the seat next to her. "So, Malon, how was your Valentine's Day?"

Zelda was all too aware of the tension in his shoulders and the dichotomy between his immediate physical proximity to her and the distance that had just opened up between them.


	12. The Morning After II

**THE DAYS IN FEBRUARY  
**by Cappucinno

* * *

**Day 15, The Morning After: Part II**

"Well then, let's just put that behind us." Malon, to her infinite credit, didn't make a break for it when Link flashed that terrifyingly polite, insincere smile. "So, Malon, how was your Valentine's Day?"

She wasn't particularly brave either, still leaning back into her seat as if perhaps it would open up and swallow her and take her away from the situation that she had in fact created for herself.

She made a mental note to stop plotting and trying to play matchmaker for her two blonde friends, because things never seemed to pan out quite the way she intended them to.

Of course, she probably should have seen that one coming. Had she really expected Zelda Harkinian to start gushing and spilling her soul over a cup of morning cup of coffee? Had she expected the notoriously stubborn and prideful blonde to _maybe _swoon and sigh and admit to even _possessing _some semblance of human emotion?

Because in retrospect, it did seem kind of stupid.

Moreover, inviting Link to join them without telling Zelda had also probably not been the best idea. And despite Link having shown up exactly at the time she'd planned for him to arrive, he had _not _in fact walked in on Zelda sighing into her coffee and talking about how she liked him.

No, no. Because her friends were freaking idiots and this was some sort of sadistic reality where none of her carefully laid plans played out the way they should have.

"Goddesses, Link." Malon said, placing a hand on her forehead and trying to think of a way to rectify what was at best a minor setback and at most a small disaster. "Okay, Link, wait."

Link carefully arched an eyebrow at her, still smiling that unsettling smile and looking altogether too relaxed.

And if Link looked like he was in an Abercrombie and Fitch ad, perfectly relaxed and casual in that I'm-trying-too-hard-to-look-completely-chill in his white hoodie with the arms rolled up to his sleeves, Zelda looked the exact opposite. The blonde was looking paler (Malon hadn't known that was possible) than usual and the second Link had set his things down at the table her head had dropped immediately into her hands and had failed to resurface since.

"What am I waiting for, exactly?" Link asked, his voice cheerful and his head cocking slightly to the side the way it did when he was working at Beyond Bizarre and laying on the charm for a rude customer despite being well-and-truly annoyed.

"Oh wow." Malon breathed, her hand dropping from her forehead down to her chest in an attempt to _not_ hyperventilate in Starbucks. "Okay. Uh. Wow. Alright. Let's see. Um—"

"Link, I _wasn't_ drunk." Zelda said, finally lifting her head from her hands.

"I know, Zelda." Link responded, his smile widening a little more and his head tilting a little further to the side.

"You do?" Zelda inhaled deeply and looked a little less pale. "Well, alright then—"

"Of course I knew." Link went on and went on neatly steamrolling over her words without so much as stopping to take a breath or pretend to acknowledge that she had spoken in the first place. "I would have to be a fucking _moron_ to have actually believed that you were drunk, seeing as at no point in the night did I give you any alcohol. Firstly, because you were on duty. Secondly, because alcohol has a huge profit margin and I don't give it out for free."

And somehow, he _still_ managed to sound polite and charming.

"Thirdly, because getting a girl liquored up at one in the morning when I plan on walking her home is kind of a sleazy thing to do because there's thing where drunk girls _really _enjoy trying to sleep with me and maybe it's considered arrogant to say but I know it."

"Oh shit." Malon said, dropping her own head into her hands. She suspected that if he smiled a little wider and tried to tilt his head anymore sideways that it might fall clean off his neck. "Oh boy."

"And _then_, finally, there's the bit where I just so happen to prefer that if a girl I like enough to actually agree to open my restaurant on Valentine's Day for _just _for the sake of having a reasonable excuse to see her and not sound like a love-struck idiot is coming home with me and happens to kiss me that I have the peace of mind of knowing that _it's not _just the alcohol talking."

"Damn it all." Malon threw her hands up in the air. "I give up. I'm going to hell."

Zelda's complexion had not quite improved throughout Link's version of a tirade, but her expression had gone from sickly to bewildered to angry before settling on a unique combination of the three.

"…You _like _me?" Zelda asked incredulously, her eyebrows rising up towards her hairline.

"Really?" Link asked wryly, smiling and shaking his head. "Out of all that. That's the thing you choose to focus on?"

"You _like _me and you chose to manipulate me into working for you instead of just asking me out for real?"

"That's what _I'm _thinking. You know, I said you should just open the restaurant for the two of you. I thought that was the plan." Malon, as ever, was ignored.

"Well, yes." Link said, nodding along. "But if I had asked you, would you have said yes?"

"I…" Zelda frowned, puzzling over it. Malon beat her head against the table. "I don't know. Maybe."

"Maybe. See?" Link said, shrugging his shoulders and turning back to his coffee. "There it is. Hakuna matata, we'll just forget the whole thing."

"But it doesn't _work _like that, Link." Zelda said, all but slamming her coffee cup down on the table and earning a startled jump from Malon. "You can't just 'hakuna matata, hur-dur, I'm Link, here I am, look I like you. Also, I used you as free labor, but hey let's put it all behind us'!"

"I don't see why not." Link demurred, appearing unfazed by Zelda's display.

"Oh, oh you don't see why not? Well, I'll tell why the hell not Mister Link Sonoma if you can't seem to wrap your thick skull around the whole thing: You can't just show up in my life of out _nowhere _one day with your godforsaken bread and this stupid coffee mug, and then suddenly you're everywhere and you're buying me purses, and you're having dinner with me and my friend and you're visiting me when I'm in the hospital and then you're all I _freaking _think about to the point where I can't even focus on my work because of something stupid like you not responding to some stupid ass e-mail and and and—and you see me PRETTY MUCH NAKED AND THEN SOMEHOW, SOMEHOW I'm jumping at the opportunity to come _work my ass off on Valentine's Day _because I thought that I'd get to see you and somehow that would make it all _worth it_! And then I actually, actually kiss you and I'm thinking and it's totally crazy but I'm thinking, yeah, you know what, maybe this isn't so bad and then here you are this morning and you somehow just magically show up like you always do—and then, just, hakuna matata?"

"We couldn't have just started with that part? Really? We had to start with the shitty stuff to get here?" Malon asked, largely ignored by both of the blondes at the table, and threw her head back in frustration. "Is this happening right now? _Really._"

"You're still not saying it."

"I'm still not saying, _what_? What do you want from me? What do you want me to say?"

"The part where you would rather say you kissed me because you were drunk than that you did it of your volition."

"Goddesses. Damn it. Damn it!" Malon banged her fists on the table, once again ignored. "Seriously? Seriously?! Come on guys, can we focus on the _good _things for like, five seconds maybe? Can we just focus on the fact that she actually did kiss you? No? Too much to ask?"

"Are we fighting because I said I was drunk?" Zelda asked, after a moment of flabbergasted silence. "Of all the things we have to pick a fight about, it's this?"

"Right?!" Malon shrieked. "_Right?!"_

"Well, I'd rather the 'hakuna-matata' approach but—"

"Goddesses, Link, forget the hakuna-matata thing!"

"Then yes, Zelda. That's exactly what we're fighting about_._"

"Well, what do you want me to say, Link?" Zelda's face turned an alarming shade of crimson and Malon prayed that her friend didn't erupt into terrifying fury.

"I want you to be honest with me." Link bit back, finally losing his composure. "Because, two weeks ago you were a total stranger to me, and now here we are and I don't know if I'm on board with it, but I like you. And liking people hasn't exactly worked out for me in the past, so if you can't actually _admit _that _maybe _you see something in me too then it's not worth it. It's not worth it and I'd rather just forget about the whole thing."

Zelda was, for once, silent. And Link sighed and, after a moment, managed to put his smile back on and lose the aggravated flush. Without saying anything, he picked up the coffee cup marked CM and put it down in front of Zelda as he stood up.

"So there it is." Zelda opened her mouth, but couldn't manage to say anything. "You know where to find me."

And with that, Link Sonoma picked up his coffee cup, cast a fleeting glance at Malon who couldn't quite meet his gaze, and left.

Zelda sat quietly and stared at nothing, one hand covering her mouth as if that were enough to disguise her expression. After a long while, she finally roused herself her face pale and devoid of any angry flush and looked across the table at Malon who was looking back at her with sympathetic eyes.

"Malon?" Zelda's voice was small.

"Yeah, Zel?" Malon whispered back, mirroring her friend's tone.

"I think I'm an idiot."

"Well…" Malon nodded, smiling crookedly. "Yes. Yes you are."

"I messed up."

"Yes."

"I should have kept my mouth shut."

"That might have been best."

"I really should have just shut up. I could have let that hakuna-matata thing slide."

"You really could have."

"He just makes me so angry sometimes."

"He really does."

"He's good at that."

"He really is."

"He likes me."

"Yeah, you know I kind of figured but he hadn't really come out with it yet."

"It's _really _creepy how he can just keep smiling and turning his head like that."

"I know, right?"

"Malon?"

"Yeah, Zelda?"

"I kind of do like him."

"I mean… Yes. I knew that."

"But I don't like that I like him."

"I can't really tell whether or not that's a messed up thing to say."

"I'm really irritated about liking him."

"But you're not… embarrassed about it, right?"

"No, I'm just kind of pissed off about it."

"That's not really romantic."

"I didn't come here to try and meet someone. I just wanted my own life. And it's been two weeks and here he is and here I am and it kind of pisses me off."

"Well, Zelda, honey, you do that a lot."

"What? Get pissed off?"

"Yeah… You should probably take Prozac."

"I probably should."

"It might help."

"But if I'd just shut up about it, then it might not have been so bad."

"Between that and the hakuna-matata rant, it was kind of a shit show."

"Malon?"

"Yeah Zelda?"

"Is this the part where I'm supposed to go chase after him and win him back or something?"

"Well, yeah I think that's normally how this thing goes. Or you could take Prozac?"

* * *

The door to Beyond Bizarre Bakery slammed behind Link as he stormed in, looking more flustered than Shane could remember seeing him. The blonde was flushed as if he'd been running for a long time and he kept pacing back and forth, mumbling to himself and running his hand over his face.

"Hey man… Link…?" Shane asked cautiously.

Link snapped around, as if he were surprised to see Shane there. Despite knowing that Shane worked there. Despite having hired him to work there and having assigned his shift.

"Oh. Shane. Hey, what's up?" The blonde asked, sounding distracted.

"Are you like… okay, dude?"

Link laughed, raking his hands rather violently through his hair as he resumed his pacing. "I don't think so."

"Oh. Do you like… want to talk?"

"No. No, I think I've done enough talking today."

"Oh. Okay man."

"It's been a rough morning."

"Did you ask her about the money thing or the dad thing?"

"No, I kind of just threw the 'look-here-are-emotions-I-have-them' thing at her."

Shane didn't quite know what to say to that, so he said nothing.

After a moment of silence Link perked up, straightening up and looking a little more chipper.

"But you know what, last night's service had a pretty huge profit margin because of the crowd and the free labor so all in all, it's not total loss."

* * *

**A/N**: Hint: what Shane asks about becomes important in later chapters. I hope you enjoyed this installment (or at least tolerated it)! There will be more updates soon, because it's February and this fic is obviously _in _February so it's conducive to writing it and finding inspiration. To all of you who are pissed off that they're kind-of-sort-of-fighting: this is a romantic comedy. These things happen. But also, this is a romantic-comedy. So I think I can safely say (without giving out any real spoilers) that everything is okay in the end. See you all again soon!


	13. Rewind, Link

**THE DAYS IN FEBRUARY  
**by Cappucinno

* * *

**Day 14, **_**(Rewind, Link). **_

"Link, is there newfound curiosity you're not telling me about?"

"Goddamn it Malon." Link ground out, just barely resisting the urge to reach over and strangle his assistant. The redhead, for as long as he had known her, remained one of the few people in the world capable of getting a rise out of him. She was also the only person he knew that was so single-minded determined to meddle in the lives of everyone around her. "Shane and the _bakery. The bakery._"

"Ohhh. Well, that's a relief."

Link would have rolled his eyes if he thought the signal would get through Malon's fat head. Fortunately, he knew from experience not to waste his energy. Instead, he picked up another file and stared at the columns of inscrutable numbers pretending to make sense of them.

He couldn't. He couldn't make sense of any of it.

How could all of these columns, all of these employees, all of these products, all of this goddamn _money _end in a red bottom line? How could a company that was a veritable culinary juggernaut be this far under?

Provided, was two hundred million in the red _really _all that bad for such a big company? Link had no idea. And therein lay the problem.

And why the hell was the head of Dragmire Industries sitting on the Board of Directors vetoing every decision that had been proposed for the last three years?

He felt a headache coming on.

Red invaded his peripheral vision and he looked up just in to see his assistant (and friend, he'd admit that as irritating as she was she was a friend) straighten up and lean over the table looking concerned.

"Link, you know, if you don't want to do this… you can tell your dad to find someone else."

Oh Din, yes please. It was so tempting to just throw his arms up and walk away from this whole mess. _Anyone _but him could have done a better job.

He ran a _bakery_ with all of three full-time employees in a rent-controlled unit with an extremely small kitchen and he just barely broke even every month.

The problem was, it wasn't just _anyone else_ that his father needed to be there. It was Link.

And if there was one problem that Link could understand this mess, it was that Dragmire was slowly but surely strangling his father's company. Fixing that would be… it would be a start to cleaning up this mess.

But how to fix it?

Link's shoulders sagged and his gaze drifted to the window, looking out over the city from the high-rise corner office he'd inherited. After a moment he shook his head and reached for another one of the many papers littering the table, looking for answers he already knew weren't there.

"No, it's fine. I owe him this much, at least." He blew his bangs from his eyes to distract himself, making a mental note to get to the barber at some point in the next week. "So, back to business—what do we want to do about these tax expenditures?"

He didn't really know what the hell he was talking about or what good it would do, but it was _something._

"Link." This time he was the one to raise his brows as he looked up at Malon. "What about your bakery? That's your dream. I mean that was, you know, _the plan._"

The plan. Ah yes, the glorious plan. Start small, a little bakery. Get a following. Buy up an old, glorious library or church and convert into a café with bookshelves for walls and hot coffee 24/7 with a house built in upstairs for him to live in a nice farm waiting for him out in the countryside.

The plan.

Link looked back at the paper in front of him. It didn't seem like much of a plan anymore. Distractedly Link picked up a random sheet of paper and started skimming it over.

Gibberish. No use.

"It'll be fine. The staff can manage without me full time." Maybe if he kept saying it he would start believing it.

He could, conceivably, wake up at four in the morning every day for the rest of his life to pre-cook and pre-bake and pre-make every item on the menu of his bakery and make sure the coffee beans were roasted just right and clean off the menus and welcome his first morning customers and then head off to work from 8-6 in the office and be a businessman.

Conceivably. He did consider himself to be one of the closest things to the legendary Link in the storybooks that he had been named for. They had the name in common. And other things. Like getting caught up with pretty girls named Zelda.

Maybe they shared the same superhuman ability to overcome great odds.

Hah. Wouldn't that be something.

"Wait. You're not closing it?"

What. Link looked up at Malon and saw that she was just as surprised to see him surprised as he was to hear the idea of closing his bakery.

"Close it? Why on earth would I close it?" Link looked at the redhead as if she had grown a third head. "Do you have any _idea _how many bets I'm on my way to winning at that place?"

"Well," Malon looked at him with an equally incredulous expression. "I guess that's a possibility. Keeping it I mean."

She looked like she believed it about as much as she believed that drinking a milkshake and eating a porterhouse would shrink her waistline.

Looking at her, Link's shoulders sagged and he sat back in his chair.

"I can't keep it." He said matter-of-factly, even as his face expressed a kind of despondent disbelief that was entirely incongruent with his flat tone. "Dragmire is on our ass. I can't run the bakery and _this_ without losing them both."

"I wasn't going to say it." Malon said with a sugary smile that Link didn't appreciate in the least.

"Shut up, Malon." He glared (rather weakly) at the redhead. "You're not being helpful."

"Hey! I'm _trying_ to be helpful here." Malon pouted.

"It's not working." Link said dryly, the corners of his lips lifting into a smile.

"It is!" Malon snorted indignantly, pointing straight at his face. "See, look, now you don't look like you're some sort of semi-conscious, disgruntled bear."

Link looked at her flatly over the top of some legal document he was pretending to understand. "Flattered. You're making me feel _so _much better about all of this."

The bakery owner promptly returned to staring at the document in his hand in such a way that suggested he was willing it to spontaneously combust.

The paper valiantly resisted his efforts. Goddamn paper.

Maybe the original Link could've done it. It wasn't fair that being named for the guy didn't give him the dude's powers. Maybe if he just kept practicing—

And he must've been looking like a semi-conscious and disgruntled bear again because when he looked up Malon was wringing her hands and opening and shutting her mouth like some kind of strange washmaid fish.

"Out with it."

"There's." Malon stopped, putting a hand over her mouth. "No. Link, I'm sorry."

"Malon." He was starting to get annoyed. And his head really hurt. "What?"

She caved like a house of cards.

"Zelda."

Link stared blankly at her, trying to think through the headache. It wasn't working.

"What." Zelda. _Oh, _Zelda.

He tried to block out the images flooding his mind before he got too distracted and was forced to hold a hand over his face to fight off the blush he knew was inevitably coming.

"Come on Malon, not _now_. This is business."

"No, Link." Malon was back to wringing her hands again. "Zelda. Zelda _Harkinian_. Zelda's _a _Harkinian."

"Malon, Zelda's a secretary I don't understand what a Hark—"

His mind still wasn't fully processing this information and even as he felt himself pushing away images of mostly-naked Zelda and Zelda blushing and trying to throw her snotty napkins at him and Zelda giving him endless grief about anything and everything, his heart stopped.

His brain caught up a moment later.

"Wait, she's a _what_?" And his heart starting beating again, furiously, almost pounding out of his chest. "Holy _shit. Holy. Holy._"

His eyes fell back to the mountain of papers amassed on the conference table, the countless pages and lines of red ink, and stacks of employee files all of which amounted to an enormous hole that he couldn't dig himself out of. Dragmire. Oh goddesses, Dragmire. What wouldn't the Harkinians do to remove a man like Dragmire from power? Dragmire had been at odds with the Harkinians since the birth of Dragmire Defense Industries an entire decade ago. Their rivalry was something of a Wall Street drama.

He saw his father's face, worn and tired. The man who had adopted him from the Kokiri Home for Lost Children when he was already six years old, much older and bigger than all the kids around him. The man who had chosen him to save when he'd already heard the whispers that he was a lost cause.

And then he felt the cautious start of optimism, a solution, a way out and for a second he dared to dream. Some when-you-wish-upon-a-star bullshit because this girl he couldn't quite shake suddenly represented more than a pretty face and a sharp tongue and the most breathtaking smile he'd ever seen.

Hope. Hope. Goddesses, a Harkinian.

"Well… that explains a lot." Link said without really thinking, his mind spinning in a hundred different directions all at once.

Veritable _royalty_, a member of a clan that more or less owned half of Hyrule and well damn, at least that explained her _attitude _and her abundance of clothes and high heels and…

"Well, don't go telling _her _that." Malon responded, smiling reflexing and looking considerably less enthusiastic than Link felt. "She likes to think she's pretty down-to-earth."

"A Harkinian. Are you serious? You know what this means?" Link said, grinning ear to ear and holding up some news clipping of Gannon Dragmire smirking at some golf tournament or another. "Problem solved."

"Link." Malon sobered, her smile fading to just a slight curl of the lips that looked more grimace than smile.

And why on earth would a Harkinian be a secretary living in a shitty apartment complex where he'd only chosen to live because the rent was so damn low that it made the crime rate worth it?

She had only said his name, but he heard the message loud and clear and it confirmed what he was just beginning to suspect.

"Oh, _shit_." His enthusiasm extinguished itself.

"It might not exactly be a problem-solved kind of thing."

"How long has she been all on her—?" Malon cut him off.

"About two months."

"Her choice or theirs?"

"Hers."

"Clean break?" Link asked hopefully.

"This _is _Zelda we're talking about here." Malon snorted and rolled her eyes.

"So no then."

Malon nodded.

Link sat back in his chair and exhaled deeply, running his hands over his face.

"I can't ask her then." Link said, looking to Malon for confirmation. "I mean, it's an option but it's kind of off the table."

"She's my best friend Link, I'm not going to lie and tell you and it's gonna work out just fine. It's a _lot _to ask her and she's not going to like it."

"But…" Link looked like a little kid pressed up outside of a candy shop. "It's Valentine's Day. So—"

"I wouldn't. _Especially _because it's Valentine's Day."

"You're right." Link looked defeated. "But even if I wait it's just going to—"

"—seem like you've been getting close to her cause she's a Harkinian and you need her connections?"

"…well, I wasn't going to say it like that."

"That's how she's going to see it." Malon said without any remorse. "I mean, you guys can figure out whatever it is you're doing but…"

"Is it even worth it?" Link asked abruptly.

Malon did a double-take. "Wait—what?"

"Zelda. We've barely just met." Link looked at the papers scattered around him and tried not to think of Zelda. "What does it matter 'whatever-it-is-we're-doing'? This company needs this. My dad needs this."

"So, screw it all, you've gotta do what you've gotta do?"

"Something like that."

"Link?"

"What?"

"I don't think I believe you." Malon grinned her Cheshire Cat grin.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Link frowned, puzzling over Malon's creepy smile. "You don't—"

"I genuinely don't believe you." Malon shrugged, still smiling ear to ear despite their rather dire circumstances. "I just don't think you're the type of person who would do that."

"Well it's not like I _want _to." Link was trying not to be frustrated with Malon. He really was. It just wasn't working. "But I just don't really see many other options and frankly if it comes down to some girl and my father then my father is more important to me than—"

"Of course." Malon said indulgently. "You're Link, after all. The noble, dashing, beat-the-odds, save the day hero type."

"Are you…" Link furrowed his brow and narrowed his eyes at the redhead, puzzling over her shift in attitude. "Malon Lon, are you thinking about the future of this company as some kind of weird psychoanalytical _test_?"

* * *

**A/N**: But all of Malon's nonsense aside—go re-read the past two chapters with this in mind. Updates might start slowing down again, but I'm planning on having another chapter out by next Friday! And if you're finding yourself confused by Zelda's estrangement and the fact that Link and Malon seem to understand it but give you next to no information about it-well, that's intentional. That's something you get to learn about in later chapters, but until then all that's important are the little snapshots of information Link and Malon have mentioned. I'll leave you guys to puzzle that out for a while. ;)

What will Zelda's next move be? Is the bakery really closing? Would Link really put his dad's company above Zelda? Would he be insane not to? And how does Malon manage to squirrel out of anything regarding her own personal life? Until next time my readers! Love, me.


	14. Luck and Decaf

**THE DAYS IN FEBRUARY  
**by Cappucinno

* * *

**Day 16, Lucky**_**.** _

In the end, Link was long gone by the time Zelda had worked up the courage to extricate herself from Starbucks. Instead she'd found herself, after some mental debate and a significant amount of wounded pride, stumbling out onto the sidewalk outside of Starbucks trying to keep her caramel macchiato (because he'd bought it for her and that had to mean something) from spilling while simultaneously running in high heels towards Beyond Bizarre Bakery.

Of course, with her luck he hadn't been there by the time she finally made it. She'd almost fallen through the door like a fool with her skirt covered with coffee, an empty Starbucks cup in her hand, and her high heels in the other and all that effort had been wasted because Link hadn't even been there. She was still a little bitter about it.

No, instead of Link seeing her looking like an absolute trainwreck (she liked to think that her dramatic appearance alone would have put her back in his good graces and had, in fact, been tempted to reproduce the feat artificially so as to get out of an actual apology), Shane and that stupid tall manager with the glasses had just stared at her like a pair of fish while she panted and tried to catch her breath.

It had taken them a full five minutes to put their eyes back into their sockets and inform her that Link wasn't there and probably wouldn't be back until the next business day and that her rushing had been in vain.

And so it was that she found herself back outside of Beyond Bizarre Bakery at seven o'clock in the morning standing on the sidewalk, staring stupidly at a new addition to the store hours.

_Beyond Bizzarre Bakery!_

_Mon-Fri: 5 am to 10 pm_

_Sat-Sun: 8 am to 10 pm_

And scrawled beneath that:

_Full service only available: _

_Morning- 5 am to 7 am_

_Evening- 7 pm to 10 pm_

_(Sorry for the inconvenience folks!)_

"Is that…" Zelda squinted at the looping letters, the early hour slowing her usual processing speed. "…is that wite-out?"

She shook her head and tried to pushed the door open. It didn't move. Her eyes squinted to catch a glimpse of the cashier's stand through the glass. It was empty. She squinted at the familiar face of clock above the empty cashier's stand. Exactly seven o'clock.

She checked her watch. Still seven o'clock.

Why was the Bakery closed if even the amended store hours said it should be open? She told herself that that was why she had a strange feeling in her chest, that she was really just annoyed about the whole thing because she was starting to feel like she was just out of luck. She ignored the other, smaller part of her that whispered naggingly about apologies and missed chances.

* * *

**Day 17, Decaf.**

Feeling a vague sense of deja-vu Zelda rounded the corner and stopped on the sidewalk outside of Beyond Bizarre Bakery. She took a deep breath to steel her nerves and pushed on the door. It swung open.

With a deep sigh she hadn't realized she'd been holding, Zelda stepped up to the register's stand (the store was open but it was still inexplicably empty) and rapped her fist on the counter. She was fairly certain that she'd be feeling some of adrenaline rush if it weren't so early in the morning, because as it was all she felt was a tingle of annoyance that she'd gone through all the trouble of waking up early to stop by before work for the second day in a row and if you weren't going to follow the damn store hours then why even bother posting them and—

"Hello?" Zelda called, trying not to sound frustrated because she was here to apologize or at least make an attempt at it. "Anyone home?"

No response.

To curb some of her restlessness, Zelda started fussing with the things on the counter as she waited. Two stacks of re-arranged gum later, she felt her foot start tapping and her patience beginning to wane.

She dusted some crumbs off the counter. She looked at the clock. Her foot tapped some more.

Don't get impatient Zelda. Remember, you're already here to apologize for running your fat mouth. Stay calm. She held on to her mantra and went back to reshuffling the gum and coffee mints.

She looked back up at the clock. 7:04. She checked her watch. 7:05.

"Hello…?"

It was seven in the morning and the shop was empty. Zelda wasn't sure if there was any valid excuse for taking this long except for some act of spite or vengeance and—

"Shhhh!" The back door open and Shane came tip-toeing up, his finger pressed to his lips. "Come on, man, what's your problem?"

Zelda pinched the bridge of her nose and tried to remember her mantra.

"Shane. The shop has been open for two hours." She kept her voice perfectly level.

"Well, yeah dude but—" He held his finger up and shushed her again, shooting an anxious look at the staff door in the back.

Zelda followed his gaze with narrowed eyes. "Is he hung over or something? Did he send you out here to shut me—"

"Dude! SHHHHH." Shane repeated, picking up a bagged cookie and thrusting it at her. "Look, here, take it, go."

Zelda took a deep breath and let it out in a long, measured exhale as she took the cookie. She passed it back and forth between her hands as if considering something, and after a moment unwrapped the plastic as loudly as she could.

Shane looked like he was about to have an aneurysm.

She reached in and broke off a piece of the cookie. The plastic wrapping crackled. And then without breaking eye contact with Shane, she put it in her mouth and—

"What the hell?!" Promptly spat it out. "Is that salt?"

She tossed the cookie onto the counter and reached instinctively for the cup of coffee that Shane had brought out with him. Saltiestcookieeverbadbadbad—Shane took the cup and scuttled backwards, looking scared for his life.

"Sahne gimmae da cupthh!" Zelda was trying not to spit everywhere.

Shane got a new cup and hurriedly ran over to the coffee maker, dispensing a _new _cup of coffee and rushing it over to her.

"Okay, okay shhhhh!"

Zelda took a gulp of the black coffee and tried not to gag. Her eyes watered as the salt was replaced with bitterness, but at least her mouth didn't taste like a salt mine anymore.

"Shane, what the hell was—" Shane shushed her again and she lowered her voice to a whisper. "What the hell was that?"

"What do you mean? Dude, it's just a chocolate chip cookie, look—" Shane took a bite and spit it out faster than Zelda had, sputtering into his coffee even as he took huge gulps of it.

Zelda just crooked a brow at him and set her cup of coffee on the counter, resisting the urge to smack her mouth or ask for peanut butter. Instead she grabbed the milk and focused on lightening the color of her coffee.

"Dude!" Shane said after loudly smacking his mouth a couple of time (to rid himself of the taste, Zelda sympathized). "That's _awful_."

Zelda smiled tightly and nodded in agreement. "Yes. Awful."

"Sorry about that, that'll be seventy five ce—" He looked at Zelda's darkening expression and recalibrated. "Um. Free. On the house."

"Great." Zelda said flatly, motioning to the back door. "Is he back there?"

Shane looked distracted. "Wha?"

"You keep trying to shut me up. Is Link back there?" Zelda asked more directly, sensing that Shane was the type who required more explicit direction than the average bear.

"Ohhh." Shane nodded and then seemed to remember himself. "No. But, shhhh."

Zelda rolled her eyes. "Okay, sure, shhh. But I need to talk to him so I'm just going to go back there and—"

"Nonononononononono—"

Zelda started walking, ignoring the surfer as one might ignore an insect.

"Nonononononoonono—"

She pushed the back door open and opened her mouth to say something to Link only to promptly shut it. The door swung closed behind her. And then back open again two seconds later as Shane came rushing in after her.

Zelda followed his anxious gaze to the swaddle of tablecloths on the floor in the kitchen.

She heard Shane start to say something but held a hand up to stop him as she cautiously approached the giant mass of white and green checkered cloth laying on the floor.

As she got closer she could vaguely make out the shape of a human being wrapped up in the cloth. She was almost upon the thing when she spotted the familiar head of blonde hair and she stopped dead, staring at the bundle in what could most accurately be described as horror.

She looked back to Shane who was shuffling back and forth and looking lost.

"How long has he been here?"

"I don't even know man! I got here at six and boss-man was already asleep and I was like, dude! And then he woke up and did like… stuff. But then he kept falling asleep so I just like, put some stuff on him and and—"

Zelda held a hand up to shut him up again. Shane complied, shutting up and shuffling his feet again.

"So he was already asleep at six?" She asked, poking at Link with her foot.

Link made some vague grunting noise and rolled over.

"Yeah man. Like, he usually comes in around five or something, but then he started coming in earlier and like leaving a lot and and—dude, do you think maybe he's sick? Because if he's sick then like no one else really knows how to cook and all the customers like him a lot so maybe we should just like—"

Zelda held up her hand. Shane shut up.

Zelda pointed at the door. Shane went.

"Alright." Zelda ran a hand over her face and looked around the kitchen. "What is going through that thick skull of yours, Link?"

Link rolled over again, mumbling incoherently in his sleep.

Zelda shook her head. "That's really helpful, Link. Thank you so much for clearing that up."

A weird hiccupy snore was the only response she got.

Zelda sighed and pulled her phone out of her pocket, sending a quick text to Nabooru.

_Hey Nabooru, I'm not feeling well. Sorry, but I won't be coming into the office today._

And with that out of the way, Zelda cast another glance at the sleeping bakery-owner on the floor and rolled her sleeves up. She found the recipe taped to the hood of the range and the ingredients spread out all over the kitchen and set to work.

"Alright Zelda. Chocolate chip cookies. Can't be that hard." Link seemed deaf to the world, so Zelda went on talking to herself. "Okay. So, one of cup of flour to one cup of sugar…"

It was some time later when the second batch of cookies were in the oven and Zelda was looking curiously at the bottom of her coffee cup and wondering why she had a headache that Shane came rushing back in.

"Zelda, give me that cup!" He didn't wait for her to comply, instead ripping it out of her hands and sticking his face into it while inhaling loudly.

Zelda stared at him, her hands still holding the air where the coffee cup had been seconds before.

"Shane, what...?"

"Oh, thank the _goddesses_." Shane put the cup back in her hands, grinning like an idiot. "I just had to double check that it was decaf. Like, I tried to make sure and not let you drink _mine_, but then I just couldn't _remember_—"

Zelda was getting the impression that there wasn't usually much going on in Shane's head.

"—but like, it is."

Zelda nodded and mirrored his smile, feeling about as uncomfortable as she did when dealing with five year olds. "And… why did you have to make sure it was decaf?"

Shane looked at her with wide puppy-dog eyes.

"Because Link says that you're _wicked_ grumpy in the morning and _super _up-tight and that we shouldn't serve you anything with caffeine because it might you _worse_ and then he said you were probably addicted to it and that was why you're always so uptight and bitchy and—"

Zelda took a deep breath and focused on the smell of cookies and the fact that the poor kid was a little bit slow and he didn't deserve to be punished for repeating something Link had said and he probably thought that anything Link said was law and the kid had the best intentions even if he was a moron and—

Zelda heard the cloth rustling behind her and Link's voice a moment later.

"Okay, Shane, pal." His usually smooth voice sounded gravelly and disoriented and Zelda silently marveled that he could actually produce words at all for having been dead to the world for the better part of four hours. "You did good. Now shhhh, bye."

Shane shut up.

Zelda pointed.

Shane left.

Zelda turned to the mass of tablecloths on the floor behind her. Link opened one blue eye and smiled, closing it again a moment later. Despite having spoken just a moment before, the blond did not look entirely conscious. In fact, sprawled on his back on the kitchen floor with a white apron tangled up with his business suit (since when did Link start wearing business suits?) Link looked perfectly at peace.

"Link?" Zelda asked cautiously, trying _not_ to be annoyed about the decaf spiel she was pretty sure she was never supposed to hear.

Link flashed that smile again but didn't open his eyes or respond.

"Hey, Link—"

Link mumbled incoherently and Zelda frowned, kneeling down on the tablecloth pile to hear him better.

"—n't supposed to… didn't think you were gonna come. "

Zelda's frown smoothed itself out and she found herself smiling (just a little bit) and reaching over to brush some bangs out of Link's eyes. His skin was warm to the touch and his hair was softer than she'd expected and for a second his hand moved as if to grab hers and—

Link's eyes flew open and he stared at Zelda with an expression of mild alarm.

"Zelda!"

"Link!" Zelda echoed in the same flabbergasted tone, watching with confusion as the bakery owner leapt to his feet (surprisely agile) and ran to the clock.

"Holy shit. Oh, shit." Link was in the process of stripping his apron off and simultaneously trying to make some semblance of order out of his disastrous bed hair. "Goddamn. This is _not. Not—_"

He must have her seen her expression because in the next second he was back at her side, pulling her up off the tablecloths and trying to brush some of the flour off her shoulders.

"No, not _you_. I can't believe I fell asleep and I was supposed to be at work already and—" Link did a double clock, looking from Zelda's business attire to the clock and back with a frown. "Shouldn't you be at work?"

Somewhere, some part of Zelda was flattered that he knew when she was working. The other parts of Zelda were preoccupied with the situation at hand and her reason for being there in the first place.

"I told Nabooru I was sick." She explained rather lamely, trying not to feel defensive and realizing that maybe Link had a point with the whole uptight-in-the-morning thing.

Link looked alarmed and his hands went from dusting flour to gripping her shoulders a little too tightly and looking a little intensely into her eyes with the most severe frown she'd ever seen him display.

"Are you sick?" He asked, sounding for all the world like an anxious father. "Did you get yourself sick again?"

"What? Link, no! No. Stop it! Stop fussing. I just wanted the day off because I came here to to—you know—and then you were here, asleep, and all the cookies had salt instead of sugar so I just figured that it was the right thing to do to stay and help because my work isn't all that important and—"

"You took the day off of work?" Link asked, his frown lessening to something a little less severe. "Because my cookies were salty?"

"Well… yes?" Zelda said, losing her train of thought because all of a sudden Link was still frowning but there was that soft look in his eyes again and he was smiling in a tired, but genuine kind of way and…

And goddesses, this man was making her absolutely mental.

"I mean, after yesterday, I just—I wanted to apologize and—"

And Link's hands left her shoulders and he was back to looking at the clock and cursing under his breath even though that soft look and weird smile-frown was still there.

"Zelda."

Zelda stopped stumbling over her words and decided to shut up.

Link took a deep breath and shook his head, mumbling something under his breath, before looking at her over his shoulder. "Thank you. Really."

She hated that the softness of his voice was making her knees weak.

"New cookies are in the oven?" He asked, and that softness was replaced with professionalism and suddenly her knees were working just fine.

"Yeah, and then I had two batches wrapped, and two more are in the oven now and there's a couple trays prepped to go in."

Link nodded, taking it all in and looking back and forth between the oven and the clock.

"Alright. Well, if we team up, we can get five more batches in at eleven minutes each, wrap the outbound ones, and I can still make it into the office by… eleven. It's not perfect, but at least I'll make it and—"

"Link?"

He broke off and looked at her again, grinning that boyish grin of his.

"I can stay here and help out." Zelda found herself saying as they both simultaneously reached for the oven and pulled it open. The smell of fresh baked cookies washed over them. "While you're working, I mean. Since I took the day off already. And about yesterday—"

"Forget it."

Zelda looked at him quizzically and stepped back as he lifted one of the cookie trays out of the oven.

"Doesn't matter."

"But you said—"

Maybe it was because two days had passed or maybe it was because like an idiot she'd taken the whole damn day off of work just because he'd fallen asleep on the job and his cookies tasted like shit. Maybe it was because she still looked like a disaster, dressed in her business clothes and covered in flour, or maybe it was something else entirely but there was little of the self-righteous anger that had been in his eyes two days ago.

Instead there was something that looked almost like defeat, but sweeter. It was something familiar, but not something Zelda could place.

"Let's just…" Link sighed and gave her that smile and she saw that strange look in his eyes again, that cross between a smile and a frown that looked equal parts heart-melting and pained. "Let's just not worry about it. I had some things on my mind and it wasn't fair of me to throw that at you."

"But I still feel like I should say—"

"Just, don't." Link shrugged and smiled than cast a meaningful look around the kitchen—the cookies, the recipe hanging there, the tablecloths on the floor, their business attire. "I'm pretty sure that I'm already entirely damned and this is messy and it's not perfect and I don't know exactly what comes of this but… but maybe we can just see."

"Wait and see?" Zelda asked, feeling a combination of relief, disappointment, and an annoying tingle of hope.

"Yeah, wait and see." Link nodded, not meeting her gaze as he was already busying himself with another batch of cookies. "You know, see if we kill each other or not."

Zelda rolled her eyes and punched the bakery owner in the shoulder. "You're an idiot."

"Yeah." Link nodded again, still smiling that strange pleased-but-not-entirely smile. "You've got that one about right."

* * *

A/N: In which Link wimps out and conflict is saved for another rainy day. And in which Malon is conspicuously absent and things actually go alright.


End file.
